Nearly 25% of the municipal solid waste generated in Kerala daily is not being treated as per the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
The gaps in the management of solid waste were revealed in the quarterly report on norms compliance submitted by the government before the Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in New Delhi.
The total quantity of solid waste generated in Kerala was about 11,449 tonnes per day, while the quantity of waste treated by the local bodies was 8,468 tonnes per day. The gap in treatment capacity was 2, 981 tonnes per day.
Of the total 11,449 tonnes a day, the generation in urban areas was 3,521 tonnes while the corresponding figure in rural areas was 7,928 tonnes per day.
The total sewage generated in Kerala was about 1,192 million litres per day. The gap in treatment capacity of sewage was seven million litres per day, based on the survey of 68 million houses conducted by the government’s Haritha Keralam Mission. The amount of sewage discharged into drains and gutters was about 0.8% of the total volume.
Sewage treatment plants
The urban local bodies had 12 common sewage treatment plants for processing 124 million litres per day. Around 1,000 sewage treatment plants were available for the treatment of 69 million litres per day of sewage in large and medium establishments.
About 116 million litres per day of sewage generated in households were deposited in septic tanks or soak pits or leach pits.
The government said that steps had been taken to implement 10 waste-to-energy plants in various urban local bodies to ensure treatment of solid waste as per the norms. The capacity enhancement works for sewage treatment were also progressing.
Kerala Solid Waste Management project has been developed with the support of the World Bank for an estimated 300-million US dollars. The door-to-door collection of waste has been increased to 84% in households across model cities/towns/villages, it said.
