The Hindu : Kerala News : Kerala lags in waste management: study

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 24, 2007
ePaper

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala lags in waste management: study

M.P. Praveen

KOCHI: More than 80 per cent of drinking-water wells in the State are polluted. This is one of the most alarming revelations of a study report prepared by the Socio Economic Unit Foundation with the support of the Clean Kerala Mission and the World Bank-aided Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia.

The report was discussed at a zone-level workshop on solid-waste management held at Kakkanad, near here, on Wednesday.

Though known for long, the report reconfirms that Keralites have fallen prey to the “NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome.” No wonder, the municipalities, says the report, see waste management as merely moving garbage from immediate sight.

Of the total waste generated, 65 per cent goes uncollected, which comes to 2,215 tonnes a day, turning public places into dumping yards. In cities alone, six- to eight-lakh tonnes of waste go uncollected a year. The State has thus become a breeding ground for epidemics.

The average daily waste generation by an individual, say figures from 2006, is 200 g in panchayat areas, 300 g in municipal limits and 400 g in Corporation areas.

Failure to segregate waste at the source of generation, absence of timely collection, unscientific and unhygienic transport, unscientific disposal methods … the drawbacks that plague solid-waste management in the State are aplenty, says the report.

Consequently, Kerala falls short of the national average in complying with the management of solid-waste rules, except in waste transport and processing, the report says.

Ironically, the State, even its major cities, leaps ahead when it comes to the cost of managing one tonne of waste. For transporting the waste to neighbouring States having proper facilities for treatment alone, the Corporations spend Rs. 1,600 a tonne. In comparison, an average town in India spends Rs. 900 and major cities Rs. 1,200 on managing waste, says the report.

Labour wages consumes a good chunk of the money spent on waste management. This is despite the service received being far from satisfactory. The report, however, gives some concessions to the State, observing that it faces unparalleled challenges in the form of a high density of population, contiguity of villages and cities, a prolonged monsoon and a heavy tourist inflow.

Among the seven recommendations of the report, the most important is to utilise only rejects and untreatable among the solid waste for sanitary landfill. What has been going on in the State is dumping and not landfill, the report says.

The report published in book format earlier this year concludes with the vision to implement sustainable, scientific and holistic solid-waste management.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala