KOLLAM: At a time when controversial Kureepuzha garbage treatment plant and garbage dumping along roadsides are giving headache to the Corporation authorities, biogas plants seems to be the new mantra for waste management in the city.
The Collectorate is gearing up to set a model in this regard. A bio-gas plant for waste treatment will be set up at a convenient two-cent plot within the Collectorate compound. In a bid to reduce the waste, District Collector P G Thomas would r equest the employees to carry lunch in boxes instead of carrying it in disposable materials.
The decision was taken at meeting convened by the District Collector, which was attended by Mayor Prasanna Earnest.
The Mayor said that once the plot was identified, the construction would be completed in three months and the Corporation would be the in-charge of the plant.
Incidentally, the Corporation had proposed five more biogas plants this month under the Sustainable Urban Development Project. But the Corporation proposal to make biogas plants mandatory for all hotels, poultry farms, auditoriums, hospitals and new houses in its limits had triggered protest.
While, the biogas plants in households seem attractive considering the burgeoning LPG prices, several apprehensions have been raised regarding practical difficulties in setting up and maintaining the biogas plants.
Playing down all such doubts, Health Supervisor Gopinathan told Express that various mini biogas plants were available in the market, which cost around Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000. These plants will not consume much space and can process three to five kilograms of waste per day, he said.
While considering the fact that Kureepuzha Garbage Treatment Plant, when becomes functional, will be able to process only 40 tonnes of garbage a day, biogas plants will become the need of the hour.
Meanwhile, the Corporation’s initiative to collect the biodegradable and degradable wastes separately from households, which is important for garbage treatment, still looms around the issue of distribution of buckets.
It is alleged that primary collection is not been carried out in various parts of the city.
This has left with the option of dumping waste household and poultry waste along the roadside and unused plots.