Kerala - Kochi   

City facing a dangerous situation, says Collector

KOCHI: With the stalemate over garbage disposal continuing, the city as a whole is slowly but surely turning into a garbage dump yard with no solution in sight.

“There is virtually no site to dump the already collected waste, which effectively ruled out the collection of newly generated waste,” A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Ernakulam District Collector, said.

“The city is facing a very dangerous situation,” he warned. The possibility of an epidemic outbreak as warned by the District Medical Officer appears probable with each passing day, he said.

Piled up waste has become a common sight in the city. This, even as truckloads of garbage, almost 10-15 days old, remained at the transit yard at Padiyathukulam, converting it to a source of unbearable stench in the heart of the city.

The Corporation authorities on Wednesday sprayed anti-microbial deodorant on the waste accumulated in various parts of the city to control the stench emanating from them. But the question being asked is for how long such measures would be effective.

The district administration, which was allowed by the High Court to dump waste on the reclaimed land of the Goshree Island Development Authority (GIDA) for 15 days from Friday, was forced to stop the dumping on the site from Monday afternoon following protests by local people. Students of a school near to the dumping site took ill on Monday allegedly owing to the stench from the garbage.

Though the situation in the city was getting worse by the day, no clear-cut instructions were forthcoming from the Government. The Collector had submitted a report to the State Government on the situation prevailing in the city and had also forwarded the report of the District Medical Officer warning of possible outbreak of epidemics to the Health Minister.

After the district administration was forced to suspend the disposal of garbage on the GIDA land, the Collector had taken the position that any further step on garbage management would be taken only after getting instructions from the Government.

He said that had the district administration been permitted to carry on with the dumping at the GIDA land, the city would have been clean by Tuesday night and garbage collection would have been started afresh.

Meanwhile, the efforts to find an alternative site for garbage disposal received a severe blow after the talks with the Naval authorities for securing permission to dump waste at Wellingdon Island, reportedly failed.

According to informed sources, the Naval authorities shot down the proposal citing security concerns. The efforts to convince Union Defence Minister A. K. Antony have also not been succeeded , it is learnt.

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