Waste Management: Alappuzha Stands Out From The Clutter

ALAPPUZHA: The municipality has emerged the best in planning and executing an effective  waste management system. It stands unrivalled in collecting, processing and disposing of waste and has become a model for other municipalities to emulate. Aimed to maintain public health and sanitation, the decentralised waste management system envisaged by Thomas Isaac MLA has been a resounding success.

According to outgoing municipal chairperson Mercy Diana Macedo, it was the vision of Thomas Isaac MLA, who understood the need for an appropriate waste management system and came up with an effective strategy. “The municipality set up a centralised waste plant at Sarvodayapuram.  About 35 tonnes of waste was processed in the plant every day. Three years ago, the residents of Sarvodayapuram began an agitation against the plant, stalling its functioning. They blocked vehicles from the municipality and mounds of waste started to appear in the municipality, which assumed alarming proportions.

At this point, the MLA introduced the ‘Nirmala Bhavanam, Nirmala Gramam,’ project. The MLA fund allocated to the municipality was utilised to distribute biogas plants and pipe compost units. Houses with ample space were allotted biogas plants with 75 per cent subsidy and others were given pipe compost.

The municipality also set up aerobic units at six centres for processing waste collected from residential apartments and small plots. In this way, the municipality managed the waste problem to a large extent. In the next year, the project was extended to all wards and the waste was processed in a decentralised manner in the municipality  itself. No issues of waste have been raised in the last one year,” Macedo said.

The municipality pocketed the awards of the Pollution Control Board and Energy Management Centre and earned accolades from the Central Pollution Control Board for implementing the project. The municipality has become a model for replication across the state.