THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an effort to strengthen and improve the efficiency of waste movement, the local self-government department (LSGD) is gearing up to deploy ‘Haritha Mithram’, the smart garbage monitoring application, to track the transportation of non-biodegradable waste across the state.
The decision comes after many fire accidents were reported at waste storage facilities across the state owing to accumulation.
To begin with, the LSGD has geo-tagged all 18,003 mini material collection facilities, 1,310 material collection facilities and 188 resource recovery facilities for deploying the online application.
The plan is to digitise the scheduling to ensure timely movement and lifting of collected non-biodegradable waste from mini MCFs, MCFs and RRFs and avoid accumulation. “Accumulation of collected non-biodegradable waste is a major issue and the local bodies are unable to track this. Once the smart garbage app is deployed, the Haritha Karma Sena members will upload a photo of the MCF and the civic authorities will be able to monitor them. They will be able to prioritise and arrange the vehicle for picking up the waste from the facilities,” said an official with the LSGD.
In 2023, the Clean Kerala Company Ltd (CKCL) alone collected and disposed of 42,408 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste. The smart garbage monitoring app - Haritha Mithram - is in various stages of deployment at 1,003 out of the 1,034 LSG institutions in the state. “Some of the local bodies are using other online applications for monitoring waste management and we have given direction to all LSG institutions to use Haritha Mithram for picking and transporting waste,” said the official.
The LSGD has directed all local bodies to come up with a comprehensive transportation plan by April end. “We are providing guidelines and technical support and local bodies have to come up with the transportation plans,” added the official. The LSGD has engaged around 34,500 Haritha Karma Sena members across the state for door-to-door waste collection.