Inspired by reports on the Cooum and other waterways in the media, filmmakers have started making a beeline to the Chennai Corporation and other line agencies, with proposals for contributing to restoration of the waterways and solid waste management.
On Tuesday, actor-filmmaker R. Parthiban was among those who met with senior officials of the civic body, seeking permission for transportation of municipal solid waste and silt from the Cooum for generation of compost for farming.
The proposal includes using the accumulated silt or municipal solid waste along the Cooum for improving farm activity on the suburbs of the city.
“This initiative will mobilise residents in the city to clean their neighbourhoods and support farmers on the outskirts. Farmers are spending huge sums of money to procure manure. Residents of Chennai have to do something to use their garbage for supplying manure free of cost to poor farmers. Simple steps by a large number of people can work wonders,” said Mr. Parthiban.
Filmmakers are planning to create awareness among farmers in the suburbs to use the garbage and silt as farm inputs.
Officials have started collecting data on the soil contamination in the Cooum to make a decision on implementing such a proposal. Once the solid waste and silt in the Cooum is found fit for agriculture, farmers will compost the waste before using it for their farmland. The civic body will ask the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust and the Water Resources Department to study such proposals before making a decision.
The Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust has already started removing accumulated silt from 300 acres of Adyar Creek to replace it with fresh sediments from unpolluted areas.
Work on removing municipal solid waste from 58 acres of polluted Adyar Creek was completed a few years ago to develop Adyar Poonga. Environmental experts associated with such ecorestoration projects have stressed the need for a study before removal of silt or garbage for use in agriculture. “Cooum silt may have heavy metals,” said an official.
