Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Waste management facilities lacking in State

Special Correspondent

Economic Review lays stress on need to streamline garbage disposal system

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court had directed local governments with a population of over one million to set up waste processing and disposal facilities before December 31, 2003, as part of implementing a solid waste management system in urban areas.

But according to the latest Economic Review prepared for the State Government by the Planning Board, urban solid waste was at present being disposed of unscientifically by dumping it in disposal yards.

Such operation of open dumping resulted in stench and air pollution, generation of leachate-polluting ground water and surface water and fly and mosquito breeding.

It was to find a lasting solution to the problem that the Government launched the Clean Kerala Programme for which a Clean Kerala Mission was set up.

The Mission was entrusted with the responsibility of capacity building of local governments in the preparation and implementation of solid waste management plan.

The objective of Clean Kerala was to strengthen the managerial capacity and responsibility of the local governments in planning, implementation and maintenance of solid waste management facilities and services and to help local governments establish socially acceptable, operationally sustainable and financially viable solid waste management facilities and services.

The Economic Review reported that by the end of March 2005, all the urban local bodies in the State had been sensitised on the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules of 2002. All of them also started taking action on it and 49 ULBs located land for solid waste management, it noted.

The publication admitted that at present the quality of the services relating to solid waste collection and disposal was extremely poor.

There was an urgent need to streamline it — collection and transportation and more significantly treatment and disposal.

It was estimated that only 50 per cent of the 2,500 tonnes of waste generated a day was collected for disposal. Everyday a quantity of 1,200 tonnes of waste was left to decompose on road margins, drains, canals, water bodies and open space. Such a situation provided ideal breeding ground for pathogens and disease causers.

Even more serious was the problem of groundwater pollution due to leachate from disposal sites. Wind-blown debris and burning of wastes invariably caused air pollution.

There was a sharp increase in the presence of substances such as plastics, which were difficult to degrade or break down in the waste stream. Biomedical waste was a growing concern because of the emergence of diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis, the publication pointed out.

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