ENTE NAGARAM SUNDARA NAGARAM

INTEGRATED WASTE TREATMENT IN TRIVANDRUM

ENTE NAGARAM SUNDARA NAGARAM

With localised attempts at waste management not yielding the desired results, the city Corporation has finally come out with a wide-ranging clean-up campaign titled ‘Ente Nagaram, Sundara Nagaram’ integrating several technologies of waste treatment and involving the members of every household in the city.The Corporation Council on Tuesday gave assent to the campaign which will run from November 1 to April 7, by which time it aims to make waste treatment at source a habit for the city dwellers.The campaign will revolve around committees at three levels.The Corporation-level organising committee which oversees the campaign will be chaired by the Mayor and will have representatives from all walks of life. The ward-level committees chaired by the respective councillors have the responsibility of attracting people to the campaign and to monitor the cluster committees under it. A cluster committee will be formed for every 300-400 houses and will have members from all the households under it.

After ward-level training programmes and workshops, the waste treatment mechanism ideal to the particular location will be installed by December in each cluster. The plan is to select 150 key resource persons for training and organising activities. Also, two resource persons will be identified for each cluster. In addition to ward-level classes, training material will be uploaded online.A key feature of the campaign will be the involvement of students. Water and sanitation (Watsan) clubs will be formed in all schools, in the model pioneered by Thomas Isaac, MLA, in Alappuzha. These clubs will lead the campaign among other students and teachers regarding waste management, and will also serve as monitoring committees once the programme takes off.

A mechanism for waste treatment at source will be setup within 1 km diameter of all schools.The students will also conduct visits to houses in the respective regions to check on garbage disposal and spread awareness.The Kudumbasree volunteers spread over 5,000 neighbourhood groups will also be a part of the campaign.The time from October 15 to 30 will be used for preparation for the campaign by studying the existing facilities and taking stock of the requirements.On November 1, a one-day cleaning programme will be held. From November 2 to March 31, clusters will be formed and treatment mechanisms installed. A social audit will be conducted on March 22 to study the effectiveness of the programme.

Prof. John Kurakar