With no let-up in dengue cases reported from the city, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation continues to find itself in the dock over a delayed start to pre-monsoon sanitation and clean-up activities to control the mosquito population.

The civic body’s much-touted waste management at source is at the heart of the debate, with critics alleging that it has not yielded the desired results.

Says Karamana councillor Ajith, “From pipe-composting to kitchen bins to aerobic bins, nothing has worked effectively. Crores of rupees have been spent on these projects. A Vigilance investigation should be ordered to find out what has happened to this money.”

The Thumboormuzhi-model aerobic bins are functioning properly in only a few locations, such as Jagathy and Erumakuzhy. In Karamana, the councillor has asked the Mayor to remove the bins in the absence of proper upkeep and waste being dumped all around the spot.

Despite the Corporation’s claims of clean-up activities being apace, drains and channels by roadsides continue to be dumped with waste, some of it in plastic covers. Piles of waste lie accumulated in bylanes. Roadsides are dotted with plants and thickets, construction material, debris, old furniture, abandoned vehicles, and waste from roadside shacks, providing a breeding ground for vectors.

“Waste, including slaughter waste, is dumped in open spaces. For instance, on either side of the Kalady-Attukal road,” says autorickshaw driver Satheesh Kumar, a resident of Kalady. “On the Killipalam Bund road, local people keep watch to prevent people from throwing waste there. They have even installed CCTV cameras there,” he says.

Says Chala councillor SKP Ramesh, “Waste from a number of wards, including Chala, is collected by an agency and sent to Tamil Nadu. What the city Corporation was supposed to do is being done by someone else. There are mounds of waste still on the Corporation’s land at Erumakuzhy.”

The Corporation has asked wards to find landfills to dump the waste cleared by it, but this too has drawn flak. Says Sheeba Patrick, Valiathura councillor, “If we had that much land, we would have shifted families affected by the raging sea there long ago.”

The Corporation claims to have cleared 130 loads of waste, but only two or three trucks are functional, the rest have broken down, Mr. Ramesh says. Mayor V.K. Prasanth says things are not as bad as they are made out to be. “We are not doing too badly considering there is no centralised waste treatment plant. We have managed to remove nearly 30 dump sites. That is an achievement. With the implementation of green protocol and the plastic ban, the daily waste generated in the city has come down from 450 tonnes to 200 tonnes,” he says. The Mayor says the next Council meeting will decide on intensifying waste management activities.

Mr. Prasanth says talks are also on with the Suchitwa Mission on a mechanism for collection and disposal of sanitary napkins by considering it as biomedical waste.

At a time when urban local bodies are grappling with the issue of safe disposal of garbage, Narikkuni grama panchayat in Kozhikode district is showing the way in solid waste management.

A biowaste treatment plant set up seven years ago is not only treating the waste from vegetable shops, slaughterhouses, fish markets and hotels but is also illuminating the 50-odd street lights in the grama panchayat.

E.K. Bharathan, plant operator, says: “Around 250 kg of market refuse is disposed of here daily. I collect it from vegetable shops, and those from slaughterhouses are dumped into a tank by their owners. The roads are lit from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. using the gas produced in the plant.”

However, he says that fish waste is not being disposed of in the plant nowadays. “Since the plant is adjacent to the village office, waste from fish markets is excluded due to its malodour,” he says.

Waste from slaughterhouses is mainly transported to faraway disposal sites. “Most of us dispose of waste through licensed vehicles after paying a fee. If the capacity of the plant is expanded, we will be better off, and be a part of this illumining project,” says Shanavas who runs a poultry unit.

The villagers are happy about the success of the project. “Our market is clean and odourless,” M. Ahmed, a villager, said.

Nevertheless, some have got a different opinion. “The limited capacity of the plant which is around 250 kg could not accommodate the entire waste in the market. Although we have licensed vehicles coming periodically to collect waste, we lay aside some remains for the biogas plant,” a vegetable grocer says.

Initially, when the plant was set up in 2010 during the tenure of grama panchayat president M.P. Rukkiya, it was decided that the slurry waste will be used for organic farming. But the distribution of manure is not so successful.

P.K. Babitha, panchayat president, says that plastic carry bags below 30 microns had been banned in the village even before the government insisted on such a measure. “Today, we assist Kudumbasree units to make cloth bags to stamp out plastic from the area,” she adds.

Around 250 kg of market refuse is disposed of daily at the biowaste plant

E.K. Bharathan

Plant operator