Coimbatore: Until recently, the residents of Ramalinga Colony located near Bharathi Park in the city had to cover their nose whenever they ventured into the streets. Mountains of stinking garbage piled up in waste bins placed in front of their homes. Now, the garbage bins are gone and so is the stench, thanks to the collective efforts of the residents, who decided to take ownership of the issue.
"There are about 150 houses in our area. As garbage bins were always overflowing, there was stray dog menace. The stench on the streets was becoming unbearable," said Krishnamurthy, a retired school head master, who chanced on an article on waste segregation in a newspaper. Along with Vijaya Raghavan, secretary of the Ramalinga Colony Welfare Association, he met the secretary of the Resident Awareness Association of Coimbatore, R Raveendran, and Suresh Bhandai of the Clean Cities Foundation on January 8, seeking more information about source segregation.
"They contacted us as they were aware that we had undertaken Sunya project in R S Puram. We taught them how we segregated waste," Raveendran said.
A group of residents went on a door-to-door campaign and taught others how to segregate household waste. They also conducted workshops on how to manage waste at homes. When the residents began to segregate waste, sanitary workers of the city corporation were informed about the initiative.
"Now, the sanitary workers come every day to pick up dry waste. They also benefit as they can easily earn thousands of rupees a month by selling the plastic and paper waste. Corporation's lorry drivers come every Thursday to collect garden waste and other waste from the road," said Krishnamurthy.
But, they did face challenges. "Some senior citizens objected to the drive. Some residents were against removing bins from the roads. But, when all residents united, slowly, the concept was understood and received acceptance," a resident resident said.
Thanks to the collective work, the bins were removed from the colony last week. The residents are now planning to plant trees along the streets. They also plan to set up a compost site on one of the reserve sites in the area. "If we set up a compost site inside the colony, we can use the compost in our garden. We do not want to send any waste to land fills or the Vellalore dumpyard," said a resident.
Lauding the Ramalinga Colony residents, city corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan said that he was happy that source segregation, which the corporation had initiated, has turned into a people's movement. "If more residents come forward to adopt this model, the city will not need landfills," he said.
