Thiruvananthapuram: With a fresh tourism season round the corner, Kovalam is about to witness a garbage explosion of sorts along the beaches and backyards of the destination. Sewage waste will soak the brown beach sand and roadsides leading to the destination will be littered with food and plastic waste.
All attempts to clean up the destination, including a mass action by the South Kerala Hoteliers’ Forum, had failed. The Tourism Department's ambitious plan to install biogas plants in 1,500 households in the area too was improperly implemented. Biogas plants were installed only in 110 households and even this has now ceased to function.
“Kovalam’s garbage issue can be easily solved of adequate space can be secured for setting up a modern treatment plant,” said Vijayachandran of Eco Preserve, the company that carries out the waste disposal in the area. “There are innumerable small and medium hotels that have not installed a sewage treatment plant in their properties. The normal practice is to disgorge their sewage tanks into the beach under the cover of night. During the season, the volume of waste generated will be huge,” Vijayachandran said.
The other big issue is the arrival of big vehicles, buses and tempo travelers, during the season. “These are one-day tourists and they bring their own food. When they leave, they dump their plastic waste along the road side,” Vijayachandran said. It is estimated that 80-100 buses reach Kovalam daily between November and March. “Till now, authorities have not thought of creating awareness among such travelers. Some punitive measure should be in place,” said John Pulinkunnam, a former bureaucrat who resides near Poovar. Sources said moves were afoot to install surveillance cameras at prime locations.
Proliferation of plastic waste is the other worry. “We take plastic and other waste from hotels. But the problem is the non-cooperative attitude of some houses, bunk shops and the Kashmiri shops in Kovalam. Instead of segregating the waste, the way hotels do, and handing it over to us, they dump the waste in their backyard,” Vijayachandran said.
