The State Level Monitoring Committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Kochi Corporation to come up with an action plan for developing a revenue model for effective treatment of waste.
The recommendation figures among the recent 15-point directive issued by the committee to the civic body for management of solid, plastic, biomedical and electronic waste.
Even though the corporation had suggested the proposed waste-to-energy plant at Brahmapuram as a revenue model, the committee wanted it to have alternative plans in view of the burgeoning waste management issues in the city and its outskirts.
The NGT had observed in one of its earlier orders that only 50% to 75% of waste generated should be managed by waste-to-energy plants or waste-to-compost plants or through integrated waste management plans.
The remaining 25% to 50% of waste will continue to be dumped in the existing dumping grounds or new dumping sites. Most States have not taken into account the possible incremental growth of waste in the future in growing cities, it had observed.
The tribunal had reminded that the situation would only add to dumps which have already assumed alarming proportions. Moreover, many States have no plans to deal with legacy waste, which have already become virtual mountains causing environmental disasters, it had said.
As a follow-up to the directives issued by the NGT, the State Monitoring Committee observed that the collection of user fee alone would not ensure a sustained process of effective waste management. Given that several residents are exempted from paying user fee owing to their social and economic conditions, local bodies will not be able to meet the cost of waste management by counting on user fee alone.
To overcome this impediment, civic bodies like Kochi Corporation will have come up with innovative ideas that translate waste into a means for money generation, it said.
The committee has issued a similar directive to the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, which figures among the civic bodies identified by the government for development as models showcasing the best practices in waste management.
Besides Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, 46 local bodies have been identified to be elevated to model corporations, municipalities, and villages in waste management.
