Mission ‘Clean Nellore’ starts

Nellore: Nellore Municipal Corporation (NMC) has em-barked on a mission to make the city garbage free. An action plan is being devised for the waste management and effective disposal of the 100 to 150 tonnes of garbage accumulating everyday in the city.

Former joint director of municipal administration Sheik Abdul Khader Saheb, who had done pioneering work in solid waste management for over 14 years in several urban local bodies across the state, has been helping the civic body to devise an action plan.

Mr Khader Saheb is already extending his consultancy to Guntur and Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporatio-ns and he agreed to assist Nellore Municip-al Corporation also wh-en Mayor Abdul Azeez met him recently.

According to Mr Azeez, the mission to make the city garbage free will be launched in three or four divisions initially and it will be extended to other parts in phased manner.

Three wheeler trolleys are being procured to collect segregated wet and dry waste from the households on daily basis. Each trolley will be handled by two sanitary workers and they will cover 350 to 400 households per day.

In the initial stages, the workers will segregate the waste in presence of residents at the time of collection in the beginning to educate and make them separate dry/wet waste on their own.

The workers will be provided with hand gloves, masks, HDP bags and plastic drums to collect the waste.

The wet waste would be used for compost and the recyclable material in the dry waste would be recycled and the balance will be shifted to low-lying areas for land filling.

The revenue generated from the disposal of dry waste and compost would be earmarked to address the health needs of sanitary workers and also to cover them under health insurance schemes. As of now, the sanitary workers are being sensitised on the new method of waste collection.

Mr Abdul Azeez has expressed confidence in making the city clean and green with the guidance of Sheik Abdul Khader Sahib.