THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Inaction of the city corporation has landed the capital in a deep waste crisis with garbage accumulation in public spaces and private vacant plots becoming rampant causing huge inconvenience to the public. Ever since the new LDF-led council took charge, very little has happened on the ground to improve or strengthen the decentralised waste management system, the project initiated by the previous councils.
With the waste crisis worsening, the state government has assigned the Haritha Kerala Mission to make effective interventions to fix the crisis in the capital exposing the incapability of the current leadership at Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. Recently, vice-chairperson of Haritha Kerala Mission TN Seema chaired a meeting to reconstitute the technical committee under the project secretariat — a unit under the health wing of the corporation.
It is learnt that only nearly 10,000 out of the 50,000 kitchen bins installed at households are functional. The civic body has installed around 441 aerobic bins at 62 locations in different parts of the corporation area for scientific handling of household waste. Unfortunately, many of them are lying defunct because of the lack of maintenance. The state capital generates an average of 353 tonnes of waste every day.
Recently, Haritha Kerala Mission has stepped in and has initiated steps to form Haritha Karma Sena in all hundred wards for effective source-level waste management and for door-to-door collection of non-biodegradable waste.
However, the recent announcement to reintroduce door-to-door waste collection by the civic body has come as a huge blow to the existing waste management system. It is learnt that the civic body had deployed Haritha Karma Sena in 54 wards in the capital already.
“After this announcement, a section of the residents stopped using kitchen bins. There are around 3,000 households using kitchen bins in the Manacaud health circle. After coming to know about the door-to-door waste collection, many of them don’t want to treat waste at the source level,” said a staffer of the service provider managing waste at Manacaud health circle.
An official of the health wing said the civic body is planning to procure 25,000 more kitchen bins to strengthen source-level waste management. “Owing to payment issues, the supplier roped in by us has refused to provide more kitchen bins. Hence, we have invited tenders for procuring 25,000 kitchen bins,” the official said.
Waste being dumped everywhere
The majority of aerobic units installed are lying defunct due to lack of timely maintenance and improper management. Karamana health circle which covers Attukal, Arannoor and Nedumcaud residential areas face the worst waste crisis.
“There are heaps of garbage everywhere and the premises next to my home is filled with tonnes of garbage. Being a councillor, I have been raising this issue for the past six months. Till this day, no step has been taken to resolve this issue. It’s a residential area and all the waste dumped here is turning into a public hazard,” said Nedumcaud ward councillor Karmana Ajith, a resident of Arannoor ward.
Following repeated complaints, the corporation secretary had issued a notice to the health authorities to clear the accumulated waste by February 14. According to health authorities, the aerobic bin units at Karamana health circle are lying defunct. “The base was not strong and a portion of the facility caved in because of it. We have given proposals to maintain and renovate such defunct aerobic bins. The engineering wing has to execute these works now,” said an official. The official said that lack of land for setting up more aerobic bins is a major challenge for the corporation.
“All these facilities get damaged because the bins are inadequate to manage the huge tonnes of waste generated in each health circle. We have decided to renovate and strengthen all of them with more facilities to store dry waste,” said the official.
Residents demand better waste management
“In the past two years, the waste crisis worsened in our residential area. Waste management is one of the primary responsibilities of the corporation and they should do a better job. Absolute chaos reigns in residential areas because of a lack of an efficient waste management. The aerobic bins are lying defunct,” said S S Pillai, president of Durga Nagar Residents’ Association. He said that garbage dumps in vacant plots are becoming dangerous for the local residents.
“There was a fire in a garbage dump in a private plot recently and the fire department came to douse the fire. There are other vacant plots where dumping is rampant. Even the health authorities and councillors are helpless,” said Pillai.
Mounting issue
An official of the health wing said the corporation is planning to procure 25,000 more kitchen bins to strengthen source-level waste management. However, due to payment issues, the supplier refused to provide more bins, said an official.