THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The much-hailed decentralised waste management model introduced by the city corporation to address the waste crisis in the capital is slowly losing its sheen owing to mismanagement by civic authorities. Complaints have been pouring in galore on the upkeep of Thumburmuzhy aerobic bins installed for community waste management.
The civic body has installed 441 aerobic bins at 62 locations in the corporation area for scientific handling of household waste. Ever since the new council came to power last year, no effort has been made taken to scale up the decentralised waste management facilities or strengthen the existing system to deal with the waste crisis which is worsening each passing day. The state capital generates an average of 353 tonnes of waste everyday.
The service providers roped in by the civic body for the upkeep of the kitchen bins and waste collection are not doing it properly leading to the accumulation of waste at the facilities.
As many as 1,000 families at Maruthoorkadavu in Kalady ward are at the receiving end because of the acute waste crisis. Waste management has come to a halt at the Thumburmuzhy unit installed at Maruthoorkadavu resulting in the accumulation of waste which is causing environmental pollution and making the residents vulnerable to communicable diseases. The civic authorities have failed to monitor or evaluate the performance of private service providers forcing the residents to form an action council to resolve the crisis.
Convener of Marithoorkadavu Aerobin Action Council Kalady Sasikumar said hundreds of families are affected because of the crisis and the Thumburmuzhy unit has turned into a dumping site.
“We have given a written complaint to the mayor, Haritha Karma Sena, Suchithwa Mission and Pollution Control Board. The issue continues to remain unresolved. We have been raising this issue for the past several weeks. Apart from assurances, the civic body hasn’t taken any effort to remove the accumulated waste. During rain, the seepage from the waste dump is flowing to the Karamana river causing pollution. We had no other choice but to form this action council,” said Sasikumar.
He said the action council is planning to approach the State Human Rights Commission seeking its intervention. “It’s been eight months since this started happening and they always tell us that they would clear the site soon. We will be drafting a petition soon with the help of a lawyer to approach the commission,” said Sasikumar.
Council joint convenor Anil Kumar said stray dog menace is becoming another issue. “Because of waste accumulation, the stray dog population has gone up. People are unable to pass by the facility because of the foul smell. Hundreds of families in seven or eight residents’ associations in the locality are part of the action council,” he said.
A senior official of the health wing under the civic body said the issue has come to their notice and would be addressed this week. “We have removed the service provider and have directed the respective health circle authorities to remove the accumulated waste,” said the official.
Supply of inoculum disrupted
Though the civic body has installed around 50,000 kitchen bins for household waste management, a large majority of them are lying defunct. Senior BJP leader and councillor P Ashok Kumar said the decentralised waste management initiative of the civic body is a complete failure.
“The materials required for disposing of household waste including inoculum are not being distributed. The same is happening with the Thumburmuzhy bins. There is waste accumulation everywhere and apart from carrying out cleaning activities, the sanitation workers are not doing much to dispose of waste daily, leading to accumulation, and when we raise the issue, they ask the respective ward councillors to find land to dispose it of,” said Ashok Kumar.
According to official sources, the new council has made no effort to reconstitute the project secretariat which handles the various decentralised waste management initiatives of the city corporation. Technical committee member K N Shibu said there are several committees under the project secretariat of the civic body that used to streamline campaigns, activities and execution of various waste management initiatives.
“There are committees for organising campaigns and the new council took many decisions without proper consultation with the technical committee. Meetings are not happening. We had piloted a slew of initiatives even amid the worst crisis during the term of the previous council. The new council should be scaling up all these infrastructure to address the waste crisis,” said Shibu.
He said there is a lot of confusion prevailing among the service providers as the new council is planning to introduce the services of Haritha Karma Sena for waste management.
“All this would lead the capital to a deep waste crisis. Efforts should be taken to strengthen the existing system instead of introducing a new one,” said Shibu. He said all awards and recognition being showered on Thiruvananthapuram corporation now for best practices in waste management are for the initiatives launched during the previous council’s term.
“Proper monitoring and review of the waste management initiatives like segregation are not happening. Some of these service providers are collecting waste without segregation. This would lead to more local protest and people would come up against such initiatives,” added Shibu.