Solid waste posing threat to public health in Kozhencherry town

Callous dumping of waste at public places by the local self-government institution itself has been posing alarming public health risk in Kozhencherry town.

The solid waste heaped by the grama panchayat behind the panchayat office in the heart of Kozhencherry town has become a pollution menace and major public health problem.

It is noteworthy that with the onset of monsoon, viral fever began to spread to an epidemic proportion in many parts of the district. Health department sources confirm that the number of viral fever cases is on the rise at the District Hospital at Kozhencherry.

Irresponsible dumping of waste in public places has converted the towns of Kozhencherry, Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta, Mallappally and Adoor into more or less a garbage dumping yard, making it safe breeding grounds for mosquitoes and rodents.

The 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.

In Thiruvalla the 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 local residents as well as the passersby.,

Mosquito and other flies breed in the waterlogged area while rodents thrive on the heaps of waste, posing pollution menace and health hazard in the locality.

Major panchayats of Kozhencherry, Mallappally and Pandalam dump huge quantity of solid waste in public places. Absence of proper sewage disposal mechanism has been the bane of these panchayat headquarters situated on the banks of Pampa, Manilmala and Achenkovil.

It is noteworthy that the district had witnessed spreading of a vector-borne viral fever, Chikunguniya, to an epidemic proportion, leaving over two lakh people infected, five years ago.