Callous dumping of waste at public places by the local bodies itself has been posing alarming public health risk in the Central Travancore district of Pathanamthitta.
With the onset of monsoon, viral fever began to spread to an epidemic proportion in many parts of the district.
The highly literate district has been facing alarming health risk posed by the environmental pollution owing to the alleged negligence on the part of the civic authorities as well as the official machinery in ensuring proper waste disposal, sanitation and pollution control measures.
Irresponsible dumping of waste in public places has converted the major towns of Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta, Adoor, Kozhencherry, Ranni, Mallappally and Konni into more or less a garbage dumping yard, making it safe breeding grounds for mosquitoes as well as rodents.
Pathanamthitta municipality continues to dump all sorts of solid waste at the open yards near the private bus stand, behind the municipal office and along the Ring Road.
The criminal negligence of the municipal authorities towards safe waste disposal has made life miserable to the general public, besides posing epidemic at the district headquarters, alleged A.Sureshkumar, municipal councillor.
He said dumping of the stinking waste from the slaughter house, fish market and vegetable market along the Ring Road has become a major pollution menace in the town.
In Thiruvalla
The Thiruvalla municipality continues to dump waste the waste collected from different parts of the town at the wetlands close by a private medical college and a few major educational institutions in the thickly populated locality in the town itself.
The stench emanting from the filth has made life miserable to the patients at the hospital as well as the local residents and business establishments, alleged P.D.George, Thiruvalla Vigilence Council president.
Mr George has called upon the civic body to take immediate steps to bring an end to this pollution menace by initiating a fool-proof waste disposal mechanism on a warfooting.
He alleged that the civic body’s irresponsible dumping of waste in the ecologically fragile wetland has already caused irreparable damage to the environment and eco system.
Mosquito and other flies breed in the waterlogged area while rodents thrive on the heaps of waste, posing pollution menace and health hazard to the local population.
Major panchayats of Kozhencherry, Konni, Pandalam and Mallappally too generate huge quantity of solid waste and absence of proper sewage disposal mechanism has been the bane of these panchayat headquarters situated on one or the other river bank.
The solid waste heaped by the local body itself behind the panchayat office it the heart of Kozhencherry town is a major health problem.
Waste disposal in Adoor is allegedly at its worst, making the town and surrounding areas prone for many vector-borne diseases. A good number of viral fever cases, especially dengue, have been reported from Enadimangalam near Adoor.
It is noteworthy that the Central Travancore district is yet to recover from the secondary complications of the vector-borne viral fever epidemic with symptoms akin to chikunguniya that had reportedly claimed more than 100 lives, besides leaving over two lakh people infected, three years ago.
