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.