Corpn promises to achieve 100% source segregation by next June

Coimbatore: In a review meeting conducted by the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) regional monitoring committee (south) on solid waste management on Friday, the city corporation promised to achieve 100% source segregation before June 2020.
It was the second review meeting conducted by the committee in the city after NGT ordered the corporation last October to scientifically dispose 15.50lakh cubic metre of accumulated solid wastes in the Vellalore dump yard.
The direction was given based on a petition filed by MDMK youth wing secretary V Eshwaran.
During Friday’s meeting, the corporation told the chairman of the committee P Jyothimani, former judge of Madras high court, that it would achieve 50% source segregation by December, 75% by March and 100% by June.
“For door-to-door collection, the corporation has procured 50 vehicles and is planning to purchase 102 more. When asked whether the vehicles were sufficient to carry out door-to-door collection across the city, corporation officials said that they are in need of another 250 vehicles but could not procure them due to financial crunch.
The chairman directed the corporation to take steps to procure the vehicles within four weeks,” said a source, who attended the meeting.
“The civic body informed the committee that it has been using separate vehicles to collect dry and wet waste to ensure that they are not mixed while transporting. About 1,000 tonnes of wet wastes are generated in the city a day. While about 500 tonnes of wet waste is processed through micro composting centres (MCCs) a decentralized mechanism to process wet wastes established at 65 locations the remaining is processed at the composting plant with the capacity of 500 tonnes at the dumpyard. The civic body promised not to dump wet waste in the dumpyard any more” the source told TOI.
Explaining about the steps taken to implement biomining at the dumpyard for scientific disposal of the accumulated waste, the corporation told the committee that it had sought the opinion of professor Kurian Joseph with the Anna university to do the process.
The chairman directed the corporation to get the suggestion within a week and implement the process at the earliest.
In December, during the first review meeting, the corporation had assured that it would launch at least 10 MCCs before January 15.
But it could launch only one centre on pilot basis. It also had assured to float tender to dispose solid wastes through biomining before January 15.
It is high time the corporation speeds up the work to scientifically dispose the accumulated waste as the residents of Vellalore as well as the environment is getting affected, said Eshwaran. “While the corporation has time and fund to implement the smart city projects, why can’t it concentrate on solid waste management?”