Thiruvananthapuram: In the wards where Thiruvananthapuram Corporation introduced ‘Suchitwa Bhavanam, Surakshitha Bhakshanam’ project, a majority of the houses have been resisting source-level waste management.
One reason for this is that there have been people not appointed by the corporation - unorganised workers and agencies - collecting waste from households, according to various sources. It is learnt that many of the workers dump the collected waste mindlessly on the roadside.
Chenthitta, Sreekanteshwaram, Karamana and Palayam are the areas where such unofficial bodies have been most active, according to sources in the corporation. T. M. Thomas Issac MLA, who has been a proponent of source-level waste management, says,
“Centralised system has totally failed and people objected to simple aero-bins. The only option is decentralised waste management. Throwing water on these efforts are anarchic, informal setups having no facility to process the waste. Corporation will have to take a strict stand against these.”
According to the service providers who set up ‘kitchen bins’ for turning biodegradable household waste to compost, on an average around 300 houses have welcomed the bins in the wards, while 1000-1500 families have been resisting it.
Of the close to 30 wards where it was introduced, Vanchiyoor is considered to be a ward where people have welcomed it well. According to health standing committee chair Sreekumar K., at least 80% of the houses here have bought into the idea of source-level management.
Here, the number of households with ‘kitchen bins’ is 284, and the rest of the 80 % is made up of households with pipe compost setups.
