There have been movements for environmental protection in the State but there is not enough awareness about public cleanliness and that of one’s surroundings, Minister for Local Self-government M.V. Govindan has said.
Though discussions about waste management had been held for long, attempts to check the habit of dumping waste, including plastic, had not met with success. It was against this backdrop that the government had sought people’s support for ‘Thelineerozhukum Navakeralam,’ the Minister said in a statement.
Kerala, he said, would become a model in liquid waste management. For this, walks along banks of waterbodies would be held to identify sources of pollution. People’s representatives of all local self-government institutions would inspect waterbodies in their wards. The walks would be completed in six days, beginning Wednesday. All pollution problems so identified would be discussed at the ward-level ‘jalasabhas’ and solutions identified. Quality checks of the waterbodies would also be held.
In the second week of May, a public campaign to clean the waterbodies would begin. The total cleaning of waterbodies would be undertaken under the slogan of ‘Thelineerozhukum Navakeralam’. Once mechanisms for management of domestic, institutional, and public sewage, were put in place under the local bodies, Kerala would transform into a State with clean water, he said.
The Minister said the Smart Garbage app would become functional in 365 local bodies from May 15 for day-to-day monitoring of waste management activities being implemented under the local bodies. It would be expanded across the State soon. The government intended for details of the waste management activities to become available in one application, Mr. Govindan said.
