A view of the Sanmathi garden created by the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation after removing all the garbage at the Erumakkuzhi garbage dumping yard.
With the closure of Thiruvananthapuram’s centralized waste treatment facility a decade ago and the capping on most of the city’s heritage waste dumps, the chances of a dump fire, as happened at Brahmapuram in Ernakulam district, are relatively low in the capital .
Nevertheless, in light of recent disasters, the municipality has stepped up its waste management efforts, identifying recently formed waste dumps for biomining. The civic body is also improving its material collection facilities with fire protection systems.
The Vilappillsala wastewater treatment plant was closed in 2011, following protests by the local population. The old waste that had accumulated around the plant was sealed, arrangements were made to prevent leachate from flowing in and water from entering. The capping work was done here before the biomining process started. The biomining process involves the removal and segregation of all old waste and the reclamation of the land. Now, the corporation is planning a mini township at Vilappisala.
After the closure of the plant, Erumakuzhi, near East Fort, became one of the dumping yards. Heaps of all kinds of plastic waste, pieces of broken glass, footwear, etc. had been piling up on these grounds for years before the land was reclaimed through biomining in 2020. The entire area was turned into a park. Later that year, another large piece of land behind the Palayam market was reclaimed through biomining.
“All the old garbage dumps in the capital are now closed. All that is left now are the dumps built over the years. We have seen a few such dump yards in Vizhinjam area, Kottapuram and Harbor wards. Haritha Karma Sena recently has become active in these areas. We have already planned a project for biomining in these areas. In total, across the city, we now have hardly 2000-3000 cubic meters of waste that can be taken care of is,” says a health department official of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.
Since the closure of the Vilappisala plant, the corporation has been trying to motivate the city’s residents to shift towards a decentralized wastewater treatment system. Pipe composting, one of the earliest methods with the installation of pipes to compost organic waste in homes, was not very successful. The kitchen compartment that came later also had limited success.
Community-based aerobic bins were introduced with the aim of providing facilities for handing over biodegradable waste to those who do not have processing facilities at home. Of these, about 50% are running reasonably well, while the remaining half are in a dilapidated state. Many of these do not have sanitation workers to take care of them. Of the total 517 aerobic bins in the city, 115 need complete replacement while 120 need maintenance work. The corporation has now engaged an agency to get the work done.
At present the corporation does not have a formal system for collecting biodegradable waste from households, although some groups are doing so informally in some wards after making arrangements with pig farms. The civic body has brought some of these groups into the official net as part of its efforts to activate the Harit Karma Sena in all wards.
As far as the bulk of meat and other biodegradable waste from the city’s restaurants is concerned, the corporation had made arrangements with 19 agencies four years ago. However, only 14 of them are currently involved in the process. Meat waste is mostly taken to pig farms located in nearby panchayats, but residents in some areas suffer due to inadequate facilities. In 2019, the PCB had issued an order to stop the transportation of food waste to pig farms on the outskirts of the district, stating that the disposal of waste in pig farms and rubber plantations was in violation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 . Now a new effort is being made on this front.
The waste from the city’s slaughterhouses is being taken to the Meat Waste Rendering Plant. The corporation is going to tie up with a private agency for the collection of used sanitary pads, diapers and bio-medical waste. The city currently survives largely without the issue related to waste, which is due to contracts with various agencies and limited changes to decentralization and effective segregation.