After the recent fire at the Brahmapuram dumping yard, the Kochi Corporation has convened an urgent meeting on Tuesday to take long-delayed decisions on waste management at the yard. The State Level Monitoring Committee on Solid Waste Management and the Fire and Rescue Services Department had recently pointed out issues at the yard that have led to recurrent fires.
Decisions on setting up a leachate treatment plant and construction of roads within the yard to improve access, particularly in the case of fires, are likely to be taken on Tuesday.
The civic body will also discuss the setting up of fire hydrants at the site at a cost of ₹19 lakh.
To supply water to fire engines, a pond along with surrounding roads to enable vehicular access is likely to be set up at a cost of around ₹21 lakh.
“The trommels, which function as a sort of filter, are in particularly bad shape and must either be replaced or shifted to a new location,” said V.P. Chandran, member of the Health Standing Committee. A proposal to move the trommels to a new shed at a cost of ₹2 crore will be discussed at the meeting.
Legacy waste
“A solution would also have to be found to the mounting pile of legacy waste which has been catching fire with increasing temperatures in the summer,” he said.
The council had, last month, refused to approve the proposal to biomine the legacy waste, when opposition leaders said that the figure quoted by the contractor, of ₹597 per metre cube of waste, was too high a liability for the corporation to bear considering the large volumes of waste.
“Dealing with legacy waste alone could amount to ₹16 crore. Considering the financial burden, the decisions on Brahmapuram could not be taken without detailed discussions,” said opposition leader K.J. Antony who had repeatedly requested a special meeting on the yard.
Funds for the various projects at the site were likely to be drawn from the corporation’s own fund, Deputy Mayor K.R. Premakumar said.
“All these issues will have to be dealt with simultaneously and on priority to resolve the problems at the yard. Ruling and opposition councillors would have to stand together to get the proposals passed quickly,” said Mayor Soumini Jain, on some of the decisions remaining pending for months.
