The Third Division of Andrott Township in Lakshadweep is now a model in waste management to the other 14 divisions and the other nearby islands. The credit goes to a team of 10 students from Kozhikode under the aegis of ‘Niravu’, a waste management consultancy, that visited the island recently.
The group that went to Andrott on the invitation of ‘Waves’, a Non-governmental organisation in islands, included engineering and CA students and five elders.
During their stay on the island from February 14 to 19 they performed a 15-minute-long capsule play on organic farming, waste management and energy conservation at various centres, followed by a powerpoint presentation of the success story of ‘Niravu model’ waste management at Calicut International Airport.
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Impressed, the Andrott Township administration, led by chairperson Muhammed Hussein, urged the campaigners to demonstrate what they preached. The volunteers of Niravu, with the help of the local people, collected as much waste as possible and segregated them on the spot.
“The failure of most of the waste management efforts in our country is that the people who talk about it did not have practical experience. We can convince other people to follow our model only because we have the said experience and can demonstrate our techniques any time,” Babu Parambath, project coordinator of Niravu, told The Hindu .
After the Niravu team’s return to Kozhikode, ‘Waves’, led by State secretary Mohammed Farooqui, and Township-level president Mohammed Jaffer Sadique along with division councillor NPP Mujeeb Rahman, took up the leadership and completed the collection and segregation process in Andrott.
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The waste, that was now converted into raw material, was shipped to Beypore to be taken to the Niravu segregation and recycling plant at Mandya, Karnataka.
The load arrived in the merchant vessel Minicoy on March 23 at Beypore.