The Hindu 09.01.2010
Waste disposal scheme mooted
Radhakrishnan Kuttoor
— Photo: Leju Kamal 
Unhealthy situation: Sewage collected from various areas is dumped in the wetland adjoining the Children’s Park on Pushpagiri Medical College Road in Thiruvalla.
PATHANAMTHITTA: Bodhana, the social service arm of Thiruvalla Archdiocese of the Malankara Catholic Church, has proposed a people-friendly waste disposal scheme for Thiruvalla municipality and adjoining grama panchayats.
The proposal submitted to municipal chairman Cherian Polachirackal stressed the need to make the local people aware of the importance of disposing of the waste generated in their own locality in a proper way.
Talking to The Hindu, Bodhana project coordinator C.J. Jacob said the venture was aimed at fighting the pollution due to indiscriminate dumping of solid waste in the town. Proper public awareness and education in the field of waste management was a prime necessity for effectively addressing the problem, he said.
According to him, all developing towns in the State were faced with the problem of proper waste disposal mainly owing to non-availability of land for installing sewage treatment plants. Moreover, the State-sponsored plants were not functioning properly at many places. This, coupled with the callous littering of solid waste from hotels, residential buildings, markets, chicken corners, etc, posed serious environment pollution and health hazard in many parts of the State.
Sewage dumping
The dumping of sewage collected from different parts of the municipality in the heart of Thiruvalla has been a major issue facing the town since the past few years. The stench emanating from the filth dumped at a public stadium and in the wetland adjoining the Children’s Park in Thiruvalla town has already evoked public protests.
Mr. Jacob said the Bodhana project stressed the need for popularising certain common waste disposal technologies among the public, thereby reducing the pollution menace in the locality in a time-bound manner.
He said Bodhana was planning to supply waste disposal devices like vermi compost pots and portable bio-gas plants, besides launching an effective public awareness campaign with its well-trained volunteers as part of the scheme.
He said the support and financial assistance of the local self-government institutions was a must for the successful implementation of the project.
The Bodhana proposal included recruitment of a volunteer core from among the local population for carrying out house-to-house awareness campaigns. As many as 1,000 shops, 500 institutions and 7,500 houses would be covered in a month, he said.
Mr. Jacob said educating the general public on various methods of waste disposal in their own locality would reduce the burden of the local bodies.
Legal measures
He said local bodies as well as the health authorities should also initiate legal measures to check littering of waste in public places. He said the project proposed installation of a bio-gas plant on the municipal premises.
Mr. Jacob said the civic body chief had shown keen interest in the Bodhana proposal and had agreed to consider its implementation in a time-bound manner.
