Youth vow to make Puduppadi panchayat waste-free

KOZHIKODE: Four youngsters from Puduppadi panchayat are scripting history in waste management, as they are on their way to make their panchayat waste-free in another six months. Shahid Kuttambur, Wahid Pilassery, Sunil Vasudev and Naseerudheen - are also getting tremendous support from the health standing committee of the panchayat, headed by M.E. Jaleel. Called ‘My Waste, My Responsibility’, the youngsters hit upon the idea after witnessing that their panchayat had become a dumping yard for tourists visiting the ghat.

“Even the locals were making the ghat a dumping yard. One of us, Wahid, is now doing his research in waste management in Malaysia, and his knowledge also helped chart out the programmes on a daily basis,” said Shahid. They regularly collect waste from households with the help of six employees, in cooperation with the panchayat. The collected waste would then be taken to Green Worms in West Hill, a recycling unit. The households are charged Rs 30 per month to collect waste.

Shahid says that in the rainy season, the residents had a tendency to dump all the garbage in the rivers and streams nearby thereby polluting all the water bodies. “When these people take up the responsibility of the waste, the water bodies are also saved," he said. During meetings with district collector U. V. Jose, the latter directed that a one-time cleaning of the ghat be done with the help of district tourism promotion councils in Kozhikode and Wayanad, said Shahid.