The Hindu 27.02.2013
Shunya to manage wastes
Rs. 85 lakh from German agency to implement the project.
Come June, the Coimbatore Corporation will implement the Zero Waste Management project, Shunya, in Ward 23.
In
the run up to the implementation, sources said, the Corporation would
hold a workshop-cum-meeting for conservancy workers, the Ward
councillor, the non-government organisation concerned, and activists and
representatives of residents’ welfare association.
After
taking on board the stake holders, the Corporation would implement the
zero waste management project by first segregating waste at source. And
when the Corporation scale up the project to cover all the wards, it
would also involve rag pickers and waste handlers in the informal
sector.
The sources said that towards awareness
creation and roping in the stakeholders, the Corporation had received
Rs. 85 lakh under the Shunya project from AIFORIA, a German agency
engaged in the project.
Coimbatore is one of the cities chosen for the project by AIFORIA and funding agencies and NGOs in the European Union.
The
sources said that the civic body chose Ward 23 because it had the right
infrastructure, a market, restaurants, and very good commercial
activity. And also households, giving the right mix to try and learn
waste management.
The sources reasoned that in many
cities the local body concerned invested heavily and publicised source
segregation of waste without the necessary backend infrastructure in
that the waste collected would end up as composite waste in the dump
yard.
The Coimbatore Corporation on the other hand
had started addressing the waste management issues by first building the
necessary infrastructure to process the collected waste, strengthening
the logistics and then going in for door-to-door collection of waste.
Infrastructure
The
sources said that the Corporation had improved infrastructure by
investing close to Rs. 96 crore – the funds it obtained from the Union
Government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
In
Ward 23, the Corporation after training the NGO – in this case,
Hand-in-Hand – would tell them what was expected of them. And the NGO
would take complete care of the ward.
The sources
added that the civic body was implementing the Shunya project in
association with ICLEI, an international NGO. On Tuesday, Andrea
Burzacchini of AIFORIA and Abbu Venkata Niroop of ICLEI, South Asia were
in the city to review the progress made and suggest ways to improve the
implementation.
The Coimbatore Corporation collects
nearly 800 tonne waste a day, which is collected and transport to the
transit stations and then the Vellalore dump yard.