It has been over two years since the city corporation decided to decentralize the handling and decomposition of organic wastes and proposed to construct 65 micro composting centres (MCCs). As on Sunday, the corporation has constructed 25 centres. But only 12 centres are functioning at present.
Due to lack of space, the corporation has decided to set up the centres in open reserved space (OSR) sites but has witnessed huge resistance from the public. While some of them staged protests opposing the corporation’s move, some others had moved the court and obtained a stay order.
While the residents claimed that composting centres in the middle of residential areas would create health hazards because of flies and foul odour, activists said that the purpose of the reserved sites should not be diverted as per the high court directions.
Coimbatore: For almost a decade, the city corporation has been trying to segregate the wastes based on its composting nature at source. It has even promised the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it would achieve 100% source segregation by the end of December 2017.
But the civic body has a long way to go. At present, the corporation has been receiving about 40% to 50% of total waste as mixed wastes.
A corporation source said, “The civic body collects about 900 to 1,000 tonnes of garbage daily. About 40 to 50% of the garbage is mixed waste. We have been taking multiple steps to ensure that the wastes are segregated at its source itself and educating the public because once wet and dry wastes are mixed, it is difficult to segregate. But we continue to get mixed wastes, which is dumped in the dump yard at Vellalore.”
Coimbatore: Six months after municipal administration minister S P Velumani inaugurated the biomining project at the Vellalore dump yard, the project is yet to take off.
The Rs 60.11 crore project was inaugurated on June 5, two years after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the civic body to scientifically dispose the 9.5 lakh cubic metre waste accumulated on 69 acres in the dump yard.
The civic body should have ideally implemented the project immediately after it was inaugurated, but it delayed the work citing one reason or the other, said MDMK state youth wing secretary V Eswaran. “The corporation is carrying out beautification works at the water bodies. It should give priority to the project as the lives of people residing around the dumpy yard is badly affected. Stench emanate from the yard. Underground water is polluted.”