Representatives of residents' associations in Thrikkakara Municipality will meet on February 28 to discuss the issue of evolving a sustainable system of garbage disposal within the municipal area.
The meeting, scheduled for 4 p.m. at the PWD Rest House, Kunnumpuram, is expected to be attended by leaders of the more than 60 residential associations in one of the fastest growing municipalities in Ernakulam district, a spokesman for the Thrikkakara Residents' Association Apex Council (Trac) said on Friday.
The residents' meeting is being convened following a request from the municipal authority, which plans to distribute about 5,000 earthen pots for waste disposal at the level of households on a pilot basis.
The associations are expected to identify the households which will get the pots in the first leg of the programme.
The municipal authority is in a fix because it does not have a waste treatment facility on its own and is pinning its hope on the Kochi Corporation offering the municipality a part of its proposed facility at Brahmapuram for treating garbage from Thrikkakara.
The municipality is also facing a shortage of workers to carry out the cleaning operations within its administrative area. Kudumbasree workers are now engaged in collecting segregated waste from some of the residential areas. However, the number of workers is limited and the Kudumbasree service is not available in all the residential areas in the municipality.
Thrikkakara, which was elevated as a municipality ahead of the last elections to the local bodies in the State, was the first among local bodies in Kerala to adopt a decentralised waste disposal facility. However, most of the projects have fallen into disuse and the municipal authority is trying to revive at least some of them now.
Thrikkakara has a population of a little under 1 lakh. A large number of new residential apartments and community living complexes are adding to the pressure on the waste disposal facilities.
