Fire and Rescue Services officials working to quell the smouldering plastic waste at Brahmapuram waste treatment plant
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT
Kochi Corporation, which had won the Zero Waste city award in 2009, failed miserably in taking forward the decentralised waste management system after 2010, criticised Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Speaking at the State Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Vijayan noted that waste used to be segregated into biodegradable and non-biodegradable ones before being taken to the solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram. Moreover, plastic waste was not taken to the plant site.
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Decade of failure
However, the plant, which was set up for handling the waste from Kochi Corporation, started receiving refuse from neighbouring local bodies too. Meanwhile, the windrow compost unit at the site became non-functional as it was not repaired on time. The last decade witnessed 5,59,000 tonnes of waste being heaped up at the site. Though the National Green Tribunal had asked the local body to scientifically process the waste, the agenda was postponed in the Kochi Corporation council on 23 occasions, leading to governmental intervention, Mr. Vijayan informed the house.
State Government intervention
The State government had to intervene to implement the directives of the Tribunal, and steps for bio-mining of the waste were initiated by invoking the provisions of the Disaster Management Rules. Both the setting up of a waste-to-energy plant and steps to carry out bio-mining were initiated by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation. The Kochi Corporation had unanimously passed the agenda for entering into a contract for bio-mining at an expense of ₹54.90 crore. Till now, 30 per cent of legacy waste has been managed through biomining and the firm was paid ₹11.06 crore in two instalments. The firm has been asked to complete the process before June 30, 2023, the Chief Minister informed the house.
The contract awarded to a private firm for setting up a waste-to-energy plant at Brahmapuram had to be cancelled as the company could not take the project further. The project for a new plant is being delayed as there are some disputes in the Kochi Corporation over the new contract for setting up the plant. However, the State government hopes to set up a new plant in two years, the Chief Minister informed the house.
