Field-level officials told to do a street-wise mapping of Central Zone.

The Coimbatore Corporation is in the process of
fine-tuning its waste management strategy. As a first step in this
direction, the Corporation officials led by Commissioner G. Latha
listened to conservancy workers in the Central Zone. This was part of
the efforts to streamline waste collection.

Consequent
upon the meeting, the Commissioner asked field-level officials to do a
street-wise mapping of the Zone, the bins available there and the waste
collected in every bin. Ms. Latha said that she had asked the officials
to do so after she found that at most places the bins placed were
totally inappropriate for the waste generated.

The Corporation has around 500 bins in the Central Zone and they vary from 0.3 tonnes to five tonnes.

Once
the study was complete, the staff would present a report to her, based
on which officials in-charge of solid waste management and she would
decide on placing the right bins at the right place with the right
spacing.

Ms. Latha said that the Corporation had made
some progress in this regard and would implement the scheme in the
Central Zone in a few days from then.

Debris management

As
part of the efforts to tweak the waste management system, the
Commissioner said that she had asked the officials to identify reserve
sites in each ward and zone to be used to dump debris. The move was a
fall-out of the meeting with the conservancy workers and sanitary
supervisors.

“One of the biggest problems they faced
in collecting garbage was debris. Once they collected the debris from
roads, they were unable to collect garbage. This affected the regular
waste collection.”

Small scale
contractors and builders could use the site at the wards if the quantity
was small and those with more debris could use the big open spaces
identified at the zonal level, the Commissioner said.

As
a follow up to the decision, Ms. Latha said that she had called for a
meeting with the contractors and builders to convey the decision and
seek their cooperation.

Animal waste

Another
decision the Corporation has taken after the meeting is regarding
animal waste collection. Those selling meat and fish would be asked to
handover the waste to conservancy workers/sanitary supervisors or others
who would be on rounds to collect such waste. Upon handing over the
waste, the workers/supervisors would issue acknowledgement receipts. The
traders should retain the receipts and produce the same on demand. If
they failed to do so, the Corporation would be forced to construe that
they had dumped the waste and not handed over the same to its men. The
traders would also face penal action, the Commissioner said and added
that such a move was to ensure compliance.