The Hindu : Karnataka / Udupi News : Beedinagudde, a breeding ground for diseases

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Udupi

Beedinagudde, a breeding ground for diseases

By Ganesh Prabhu

Heaps of garbage at the Beedinagudde dump near Udupi.

UDUPI, NOV. 16. Travellers between Manipal and Udupi covering their noses with their handkerchief when the bus passes by the garbage dump at Beedinagudde on Sharada Kalyan Mantap-Beedinagudde road is a common sight. The waste generated by the temple town of Udupi is disposed of at the three-acre dump.

The city has a population of 1.13 lakh as per Census 2001. But the dump is clearly inadequate considering that the Udupi City Municipal Council now has jurisdiction over many notified areas such as Parkala, Herga, Puttur, Malpe and 76 Badagabettu.

It is estimated that 10 to 15 tonnes of waste is dumped at the Beedinagudde yard everyday. Although the CMC has built a compound wall for the yard, the garbage overflows from the yard. Crows, stray cows and dogs roam in the filth at the yard, making it a breeding ground for diseases. There are about 80 houses near the site. Water from the site flows into the neighbourhood during the monsoon. The percolation of filthy water from the site has polluted the wells in the surrounding areas. As if this is not enough, rag pickers set fire to the waste.

The CMC has been trying to solve this problem, but has met with little success. A few years ago, there was a move to shift the dumping yard to Anjar, which had to be given up, as the plot there was not handed over to the CMC. A plan to shift the yard to Alevoor was dropped. The earlier municipal body, controlled by the Congress, approached the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, to study the issue. It was then thought that biotechnological methods could be used to solve problem of waste disposal. Two sheds were constructed at Beedinagudde at a cost of Rs. 10 lakhs. But the scheme was given up.

The idea of setting up decentralised waste disposal came a cropper.

The Udupi Zilla Nagarika Samiti has been campaigning for shifting the dump to some other place.

According to Nityananda Volkadu, samiti general secretary, the district administration had promised the samiti to shift the yard but nothing had happened. He had approached the Municipal Commissioner, H.S. Rudreshgowda, who had assured him that the waste would be shifted from the yard as soon as land was identified for it.

The CMC had appointed four persons to keep a watch at the yard so that no biomedical waste was dumped. This system was in vogue for two months. But for the last three months, there were no guards at the yard and reckless dumping of waste had resumed, he said.

Chittaranjandas Hegde, councillor and former president of the CMC, said tenders had been floated for land filling work for a playground at Kalmady. The waste from Beedinagudde would be used for land filling work at Kalmady.

The fibre garbage bins installed under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project in different parts of the city had proved inadequate as waste spilled over from them. Eighty fibre bins had been kept in various parts of the city. If someone set fire to the garbage, then the fibre bins imported from Germany would melt. Besides, the waste from these bins would again be dumped at Beedinagudde. Udupi had been chosen under the "Nirmala Nagara Yojana" scheme. But the scheme stipulated door-to-door collection of garbage, Mr. Hegde added.

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Beedinagudde, a breeding ground for diseases