THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation’s move to set up a centralised facility to manage tonnes of sanitary waste generated in the capital has faced a setback. The project, that was conceived six months ago to resolve the sanitary waste crisis, continues to remain on paper due to the unavailability of land.
It is estimated that around 4-5% of the total 450-tonne garbage generated daily in the capital is sanitary waste, which includes napkins and diapers.
Though the door-to-door collection of waste has been strengthened, the Haritha Karma Sena members are not taking sanitary waste from households. According to officials, the coverage of waste collection has reached 86%.
Last year, the civic body entered into an agreement with an agency to collect and cart away sanitary waste from households to KEIL (Kerala Enviro Infrastructure Ltd), an Ernakulam-based agency. As per the agreement, the residents will have to pay Rs 50 per kg of sanitary waste.
“Because of the high fee, a large majority of the residents haven’t availed the service. We provided an online platform and they will be giving a bag for those who sign up for the service. People are dumping sanitary waste in drains and public places. Hence, we came up with this plan to set up a centralised plant with a capacity to treat 2 tonnes of sanitary waste on a daily basis. Around 10 to 20 cents of land is required for setting up the plant,” said an official.
Local resistance by the public against waste management facilities and the unavailability of land are the two main issues standing in the way of the project. Health standing committee chairperson Gayatri Babu said that the district collector has identified two or three locations for setting up the plant.
“Besides this, we are rolling out a project at schools under our jurisdiction. We are installing around 40 incinerators and we have installed napkin vending machines, too. The civic body is not promoting incinerators and hence, this is a temporary arrangement. Once the centralised plant comes up, all these issues will be solved,” said Gayatri Babu.
She said that the corporation is taking efforts to promote menstrual cups and cotton pads at educational institutions to reduce the generation of sanitary waste.
Project continues to remain on paper
The project, that was conceived six months ago to resolve the sanitary waste crisis, continues to remain on paper due to the unavailability of land. It is estimated that around 4-5% of the total 450-tonne garbage generated daily in the capital is sanitary waste,