Thiruvananthapuram: The waste-management agency in Palayam – a ‘Suchitwa’ ward – has pulled out, unable to find support from the people for source-level waste management.
In fact, the very workers entrusted with implementing the project have been collecting waste from individual homes, instead of promoting kitchen bins, according to the agency.
The non-profit organisation, Pelican Foundation, withdrew from Palayam ward in May, but continues to take care of Kamaleshwaram and Sasthamangalam wards. Its CEO C.N. Manoj says, “The manpower here was in excess with 18 green technicians in the ward alone. The mechanism would have worked if the ratio of workers was one for every 200 households.”
The agency had requested that the workers be relocated to another ward, but the Corporation could not do it, he says. They moved four workers to Sasthamangalam ward, but the manpower was still in excess.
Ward councillor Ayesha Backer however said that the agency had stopped offering support. She said that temporary arrangements had been made to “collect waste from houses which did not have space for pipe composts.” This would be treated at the biogas plant at Palayam market.
The money collected from the households, when it gets divided among so many people, would be a paltry sum. Had there been just 6 green technicians, the project would have been able to provide over Rs 7,000 to each worker.
In order to increase their income, the workers themselves offered to collect waste from homes for an additional amount, Manoj says.
The green technicians used to be waste collecting workers employed by Kudumbasree during Vilappilsala time.
Manoj says that the ward would produce 500 kg daily, but the workers got to manage just 250 kg.
“If every person in the ward supported source-level management, it would have been a different story,” he says.
