City grappling with garbage - Kochi - Express News Service report

City grappling with garbage
Tuesday June 3 2008 00:00 IST ENS K Surekha

There’s no end to the garbage woes of the city.

A day after the compendium of bylaws to govern the solid waste management process came into effect, heaps of garbage can be seen piled on the roadsides. Bundled in plastic covers that display the names of many a store and supermarket in the city.

The bundles are an indication that people are not aware of the segregation of biodegradable waste from the non-biodegrable. Most homes in the city have been asked by the corporation to put the waste in separate bins (red and green that are yet to reach a majority of homes).

“I paid Rs 70 for the bins and haven’t got them, I burn most of the waste in my compound because the workers don’t collect the waste on a daily basis and keeping the waste near the gate for hours is unhealthy and inauspicious. When it pours this will surely breed diseases,” says Sreebala, a housewife at Mavelipuram Colony in Kakkanad.

In most homes the garbage is left near the gate at the mercy of crows and rats. If people who collect the waste are nowhere to be seen, where will the residents throw the waste? In some flats the workers collect the garbage religiously but the plastic and the rest are mixed together.

“The people who come to collect it are irregular and the stench in the apartment drives everyone crazy,” says Minu Mathew who resides in a flat at SRM Road.

It is the same at many other apartments. Some civic conscious people do take pains to divide the waste in two bags. But the plastic waste is collected only once in a blue moon. People living in limited spaces find it difficult to keep the waste at home for long. And they don’t feel like paying the monthly fee of Rs 30 to the Corporation.

Unless the Corporation takes measures to clear the waste on a daily basis, the residents will have no go but to dump it in the neighbour’s vacant plot, stealthily leave it by the wayside, or throw it into canals and backwaters that are already stagnating with waste. After all, Keralites are more bothered about personal hygiene than their surroundings.

There’s a big hoarding at the entrance of Shenoy Road saying a word of thanks to the people who’ve managed to keep the road so dirty.

“It’s up to the residents to complain to the concerned people and get the waste collected daily. We’re collecting all the waste and after segregation, processing it at the Brahmapuram plant,” says Mayor Mercy Williams.

Now most of the shops in the city have done away with plastic bags and the waste management is better, she says.

In a city that has a population of 16 lakh and a floating population of over a lakh, the number of waste bins in the streets and on the highways are few and far between. Going by the waste seen in and around the city, the Corporation will have a tough task to maintain a clean Kochi.