Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Municipalities go land hunting for compost yards

Karthik Madhavan

They face exorbitant prices and have to cope with opposition from local residents

UNENDING SEARCH: Land for compost yards has remained a problem for many civic bodies in Erode region. — Photo: M. Govarthan

ERODE: Kasipalayam Municipality, a Grade Three civic body, has been busy for the past three years, hunting for land. It is on the look out for a site to set up a compost yard to begin solid waste management.

Its search for over 10 acres to disposes of waste - which is about 30 tonnes a day - all around the agricultural town has proved futile.

The reasons: either the prices were exorbitant or the villagers who got wind of a compost yard in their midst approached the judiciary to stifle it.

Dumping

With no solution in sight, the civic body continues dumping waste, without segregating it, on a private land, much to the discomfort of those in the neighbourhood.

Turn to Periyarsemur, another Grade Three civic body, near here.

The fate is no different here except that the years of search for land, volume of waste generated and land requirement varies.

Here too the civic body has been dumping waste on a private land.

Veerappan Chatram Municipality is worse in that it dumps waste on a graveyard, right on the banks of the Cauvery.

B.P. Agraharam and Suriyampalayam town panchayats are no different either, when it comes to their cup of woes.

Inability

And, the reasons for their inability to find land are also the same.

Enquiries with officers in the civic bodies reveal that all of them have zeroed in on some land or the other and are making moves against great odds - without the knowledge of the neighbours - to seal the deal.

And, as and when the deals materialise, Erode would be surrounded by compost yards of various sizes.

Garbage might be dumped much to the objection of residents, who might allege that compost manufacturing does not take place and that their lands are getting polluted.

A few civic body chairmen and officers suggest in private that the Erode Municipality could be approached for dumping garbage and compost preparation.

They say they are ready to pay according tonnage and also share other resources.

They argue that given the existing facilities at the Erode Municipality's compost yard at Vendipalayam.

It would spare the civic bodies and the public a lot of strain.

In addition to this it would also help the town remain clean.

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