KOCHI: Unlike for most city residents, solid waste generated by households is not a stinking issue for the people of Pachalam. Instead, they view it as an opportunity to serve themselves better and reduce the spending on fuel for cooking.

At least 100 households in the Pachalam division of the Corporation will have biogas plants installed in their backyards by the end of March as part of a solid waste management programme. The selection of the households will be over soon and the work on 50 units will start in the first phase, said E.M. Sunilkumar, the division councillor and chairman of the Town Planning Standing Committee of the city Corporation.

The residents are given two options regarding the units that they go in for. A permanent unit capable of processing five kilo biodegradable waste each day and generating three hours of biogas and a mobile unit with the capacity for treating 3 kg waste. The fixed unit needs just 2 sq.m. space and costs Rs.7,200. The mobile unit is priced at Rs.4,200 and is aimed at the temporary residents.

Once the hundred units become operational, it will process at least 500 kg waste each day and produce biogas that can be used for 300 hours thus reducing the garbage heaps and saving considerable amount spend on fuel, Mr. Sunilkumar said. The representatives of residents associations of the area who have volunteered for the programme are busy preparing a project report to be submitted to the Clean Kerala Mission of the State Government, which has offered to subsidise the project. Negotiations are also on with some banks for extending loans to the biogas projects. Steps for availing of the support of the Kochi Corporation are also being undertaken, he said.

It is with the assistance of the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences that the biogas projects are being implemented in the division. The residents associations are also coming forward to form family units consisting of 50 houses to undertake the cleaning of drains and roads in their respective areas.

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