BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to replicate Tamil Nadu model of Micro Composting Centre (MCC) for proper segregation and management of wet waste. The decision was taken after a visit of high-level team, led by Principal Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Department G Mathivathanan and Mission Director of Swachh Bharat Mission Sangramjit Nayak to the southern State.
The team visited a number of urban localities in Tamil Nadu to have a firsthand information on best practices of solid waste management and adopt the same in urban local bodies in Odisha. "Since the innovative model of MCC is a proven technology, cost effective, community driven and user friendly, the civic bodies there have adopted it in their respective areas. We will set up the MCCs with the same technology so that waste management can be properly done," said Mathivathanan.
As quantity and physical composition of solid waste continuously changes with population due to rapid urbanisation, ULBs here have been facing serious problem of solid waste management. As improper solid waste disposal leads to severe environmental and health hazards, the HUD Department has decided to go for decentralised solid waste management which can be an effective solution to minimise the problem in urban localities.
The Principal Secretary said once MCCs are set up there will be no secondary transportation of waste and the money spent towards transportation can be saved. “We zeroed in on the decentralised solid waste management model after exploring several options,” he said.
The State Government has already issued a Standard Operating Procedure on solid waste management and asked all ULBs to engage Swachha Sathi in their respective Wards. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had recently laid the foundation for construction of 242 MCCs across all 114 ULBs.
While 42 are under construction, the rest are under tender process. Housing and Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena said that MCCs of different capacities, one to five tonne per day, are being set up at ULBs.
The compost generated in these centres can be utilised and will replace the chemical fertilisers in the days to come, he said. Project Directors of District Urban Development Agencies, Municipal Commissioners, Executive Officers, Health Officers and Municipal Engineers have been oriented about the function of MCCs and 28,606 personnel involved in solid waste management have been trained.