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Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan calls all-party meeting to address Thiruvananthapuram’s garbage problem
The government has reportedly finalised an elaborate scheme to make the Amayizhanjan Canal pollution-free.
Corporation workers cleaning the Amayizhanjan Canal near Thakarapparambu, in Thiruvananthapuram. File photo
| Photo Credit: S. Mahinsha
An all-party meeting on July 27, 2024 will strive to seek political consensus for ridding Thiruvananthapuram city of garbage piles, plastic litter, urban refuse and sewage pollution.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will chair the online scheduled to start by 3 pm. V.D. Satheeshan, opposition leader, and BJP leaders will attend, among others.
Also read: High risks of sanitation workers: Killed by the job
Mr. Vijayan had called the meeting in the wake of public outcry caused by thedeath of a sanitation worker who met a watery grave while cleaning the toxically polluted Amayizhanjan canal.
Coursing through the heart of the capital city, the Amayizhanjan Canal has become a noxiously black open sewer, a convenient trash dump, and a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread malaria and dengue fevers.
The contract worker’s death prompted the Kerala High Court to hold a special sitting. It appointed an Amicus Amicus Curiae, an impartial observer, to study the capital’s garbage problem. Mr Satheeshan had termed it a public health hazard and an eyesore.
High Court observations
Discomfitingly for the government, the High Court observed on July 26 that the polluted and choked-up Amayizhanjan canal was an “embarrassment” to the capital city.
Quoting the Amicus Curiae, a division bench comprising Justice Bechu Kuran Thomas and Justice P Gopinath observed that “every part of Thiruvananthapuram is like a dump site”.
The justices asked authorities to realise that most capital cities are “visual treats.” They wondered why pollution remained unchecked “right under the government’s nose.”
The HC’s scathing remarks have arguably been a blow to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. Congress and BJP have interpreted the Amicus Curiae’s “damning” findings as a setback to CPI(M) controlled Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation and the LSGI department.
LSGI Minister M B Rajesh and Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran were apparently hard-pressed. to defend the administration in the face of strident opposition protests.
Mr Satheesan and Mr Rajesh had engaged in a war of words over urban pollution and decay. Mr Satheeshan accused the government of turning Kerala into a vast garbage mountain. Mr Rajesh listed the government’s attempts to rid the State of garbage, including bio-mining, landfills, and incinerator units.
The government has reportedly finalised an elaborate scheme to make the Amayizhanjan Canal pollution-free. The scheme involves cracking down on litterbugs and the profusion of single-use plastic.
The government has deployed health squads to identify large-scale polluters, including some shopping malls, commercial establishments, hospitals, auditoriums, workshops and waste and sewage collectors, who treat the canal as a convenient receptacle of accumulated waste.
Recently, the squads booked two supermarkets for dumping raw sewage into stormwater drains that flow into the Amayizhnjan canal.
However, the administration has more problems to surmount to make Thiruvananthapuram pollution-free. If not resolved, the government’s efforts risked looking cosmetic.
For one, large swathes of the city remain unconnected to the sewage network. The alleged lack of political will, apathy toward residents, and scarcity of funds have almost indefinitely stalled the laying of sewerage lines and the setting up of pumping stations and sewage treatment plants.
Moreover, an expansive network of neighbourhood roads dug for laying sewerage lines remained barely traversable.
Most parts of the Amayizhanjan Canal remained unfenced, making it easy for people to hurl household waste in plastic bags into the canal.
The government has reportedly identified “vulnerable localities” where litter bugs dump waste with impunity. The government planned to fence the entire stretch of the canal and construct “domes” to deter those who throw waste casually into the waterway.
Most stormwater drains expunge sewage and large amounts of trash into the arterial canal, which remains choked with urban sewage year-round, except during the monsoon season.
The canal empties into the Aakulam Lake and is the most significant contributor to the scenic waterbody’s pollution.
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