The City Corporation plans to go ahead with its resolution to set up one-lakh pipe compost units in the Corporation limits in spite of the doubts expressed by the ward councillors regarding the collection of fund. At the one-day workshop on pipe composting organised for ward councillors here on Saturday, the councillors were directed to form ward-level beneficiary and monitoring committees to effectively implement the pipe-composting scheme.
Inaugurating the workshop, Mayor K. Chandrika said that such home-based waste management solutions were necessary to drastically cut the amount of organic waste generated in the city. This, in turn, would help to reduce the amount that needed to be treated at the Vilappilsala garbage treatment plant, she said.
An 11-member committee chaired by a publically elected chairman and convener would be responsible for the implementation the projects in the households. Of the total cost of the unit, 75 per cent would be given by the Corporation as subsidy and the beneficiary would have to bear the rest of the amount. The committee need to maintain a joint bank account for the purpose.
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A single unit would cost Rs.813, including transportation cost, out of which the beneficiary would have to pay Rs.203. However, the councillors wanted the Corporation to provide an advance amount for starting the scheme, citing delay in release of funds for some earlier projects.
Mayor K. Chandrika said that the Corporation would offer support to those wards which were unable to meet the expenses in arrangement with various clubs or residents' associations.
The monitoring committee with ward councillors as presiding officers would be responsible for issuing the certificates for establishing the units. The councillors would be also responsible in addressing the incidental problems of the installed units and periodic checking of the units in their respective wards. A Corporation-level committee headed by the Mayor would, in turn, oversee the entire activities.
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Implementation
The units would be set up by accredited agencies, recognised service providers and voluntary organisations. Each unit would consist of two ISO-certified pipes one meter in height and 200 mm in circumference which could hold pressure up to 2.5 force per square cm. The lids for the pipes could be made either from ferrocement or galvanised iron sheets.
The committee could make this venture profitable if they could reduce the equipment cost and the labour cost. For this, the committee could opt for bulk orders of the raw materials and also seek help of organisations such as Kudumbashree units and residents associations, said C. Radhakrishan Kurup, Corporation Additional Secretary.
According to Corporation health officer D. Sreekumar, the problems of bad odour and presence of worms near the pipes could be solved by employing a few techniques such as adding bleaching powder or an effective micro-organism (EM) solution. The committee which would also have specially trained health officers could look into such problems, he said.