The Hindu           19.12.2011

Focus on solid waste management

Management of slaughter house waste and other solid wastes are among the top projects that have a common thread among the people in the district.

According to the projects that have been sent to the district Health as part of the Comprehensive Health Plan under the 12 {+t} {+h} Five-Year Plan, a number of villages and towns in the district have taken it up as one of the leading health-hazard projects.

The State is yet to adopt a viable waste management system in spite of the fact that this has been one of key issues for which the government has provided budgetary support.

Among the other key projects is sewage management and mosquito eradication.

Some of the other key projects proposed by various panchayats and municipalities are for lifestyle disease management. Pain and palliative care, important for the terminally ill patients, should be made available locally. This is the concern of the people that has suggested the Health authorities to plan for such care for patients who need not be taken to far off places to relieve them of pain.

Various panchayats have also asked the Health authorities to come up with education and communication programmes with respect to a number of diseases on a regular basis. This request perhaps has been a result of the unchecked rise in water-borne diseases this year that resulted in a lot of morbidity.

All these projects are being consolidated by the district Health authorities and would be submitted to the State.