With many COVID-19 positive cases being reported and thousands of families under home quarantine in the Corporation limits, residents expressed concern over collection and disposal of municipal solid waste from the households in containment zones by the civic body.
Collected wastes are segregated manually at each zone and are taken to the compost yard at Vendipalayam. Valayakarar Street and Rajajipuram are the two containment zones in the city, and barricades are placed outside the houses and apartments where positive cases were reported and the entry and exit is restricted.
The residents living near the home quarantined areas said that the waste collected from the quarantined houses and from other households were dumped together in the garbage collection vehicle. “Masks, gloves and other household wastes from quarantined houses are handled by workers without any protective equipment,” said a resident at Sampath Nagar.
Corporation Commissioner M. Elangovan told The Hindu that waste from houses where positive cases were reported were collected in yellow bags in separate vehicles and transported to the compost yard and buried deeply.
Solid waste was collected and disposed of effectively both from the containment areas and the quarantined houses.
Medical waste
Meanwhile, the residents of Thottampatti in the city submitted a petition to the district administration stating that a few private hospitals were dumping medical waste in a quarry in their locality.
The issue was taken up with the corporation officials last week after which they inspected the quarry and confirmed the presence of medical waste. However, no action was taken against the hospitals or the quarry owner so far.
