Corporation officials have been working towards creating a ‘unit,’ a two-acre enclave of green cover amongst mounds of garbage in a bid to absorb toxic fume from the dump yard at Tharuvaikulam.
They have been doing the spadework since June 9 to plant 2,000 saplings in the reclaimed space that was buried in mounds of garbage out of self-interest using private contributions.
The 500-acre dump yard has witnessed frequent fire emitting toxic gases and the size of garbage mounds rises every day. “The initiative is an effort towards reducing emissions from the dump yard,” says City Health Officer Vinodh Raja.
ADVERTISEMENT
Last Sunday, around 70 officials and volunteers including supervisors at micro-composting centres, Swachh police, Sanitary Officers V. Ariganesan, S. Rajapandian, Stalin Packianathan, S. Rajasekaran, City Health Officer and the Corporation Commissioner V.P. Jeyaseelan came together to plant the saplings.
Previously, garbage had been removed using diggers after which three-feet deep pits were dug at the site to ensure that plastics do not hinder growth of plants. Over the course of several weeks, fencing and gate were set up using contribution from various private organisations. Organic manure generated from waste was used. They painted the fencing poles, gates and a part of the wall to spruce up the area. Recently, pipes have been set up for drip irrigation.
‘We Can Trust,’ an NGO involved in afforestation activities, helped in the initiative. The initiative, along with two others - bio-mining and cent per cent solid waste processing facility - are expected to provide a facelift to the dump yard.
ADVERTISEMENT
Under bio-mining, the existing ‘legacy waste’ would be removed and the land would be reclaimed, while the latter helps in reducing the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill. “The solid waste processing facility would help bring down the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill to just about 10 % of the waste generated,” says Mr. Vinodh.