With the closure of business establishments and reduction in movement in public spaces due to the lockdown, the amount of garbage generated in areas covered under Madurai Corporation has been reduced by around 34%.
According to a Corporation official, the garbage generated in the city reduced from 630 tonnes per day to around 410 tonnes. “Door-to-door collection of garbage from residences is being carried out by our conservancy workers in all the 100 wards. But, most of the commercial establishments, hotels and restaurants have been closed. Thus, the waste generated in commercial areas like the core streets around Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple and at other tourism spots has reduced considerably,” said the official.
The official said that the amount of waste generated across vegetables markets had also come down as no vegetables were left unsold and discarded as done in the past.
According to the officials, biomedical waste generated from quarantined homes is collected separately and handed over to a private organisation for incineration. “Residents of all the quarantined homes are given separate bags and asked to dispose of the biomedical waste in them. Conservancy workers identify these residences by the stickers stuck there,” said a Sanitary Inspector.
With the reduction in garbage generation, the conservancy workers are assigned additional tasks such as disinfecting localities. “The workload is increasing as various precautionary measures have to be undertaken to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. So, the conservancy workers are helping anti-mosquito squad workers to disinfect the city,” said the Sanitary Inspector.
The officials said disinfection work was being regularly carried out at all important places, including markets, banks and ATM centres. Disinfectants and bleaching powder were sprayed in densely populated areas every day. Conservancy workers also distributed pamphlets to create awareness of hygiene practices that residents had to adopt, they added.