Tripunithura residents leftto deal with garbage issue

Crisis after municipality’s order stops collection of waste

Growing menace: Collected waste remains in a bin as Tripunithura Municipality has stopped collecting waste from most of the areas in the town. Photo: K.K. Mustafah

Biobins, biopots, pipe compost, portable biogas units are the buzzwords in Tripunithura as residents struggle to find a solution to their waste management problems.

The Tripunithura Municipality recently ordered Kudumbasree workers to stop collecting organic and plastic waste from houses and apartments. Municipal Chairman R.Venugopal defended the decision and said the issue had been discussed with residents’ associations in the area. Mr. Venugopal said many issues triggered the decision and a recent tipper lorry strike was one of them.

V.C. Jayendran, secretary of Tripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents’ Associations, said there was not enough gravel to cover dumping sites. A strike organised by the students of Government Arts College, Tripunithura, that owns the dumping yard at Mekkara, had added to the residents’ woes, he said.

However, a flat owner said waste collection had not been withdrawn uniformly in the municipality. Kudumbasree workers were still collecting waste from a few localities. Mr. Venugopal said waste was being collected in localities where residents’ associations had promised to install a waste disposal unit. However, the flat owner said similar promises from his association were not considered.

A resident of a small apartment complex said his association was trying to find the best solution to manage waste in their complex comprising 11 units. The two large biobins supplied by CREDAI’s (Confederation of Real Estate Development Association of India) Clean City Project were not viable as they were suited for complexes with more than 20 units, he said. CREDAI supplied biobins only in pairs, not single units, he said. Only individual house owners and not flat owners were eligible for a subsidy from the government for installing waste disposal systems, he said.

“For the past one week there was no waste collection, but on Friday, Kudumbasree workers promised to collect plastic and organic waste till our apartment installed a waste disposal unit,” said a resident.

Many flat owners’ have started dumping organic waste on the roadside. Mr. Venugopal said strict vigilance would help stop such practices. However, Mr. Jayendran has questioned the system which has put the onus on the residents to solve the waste management problem.