Life
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
A burning issue, indeed
A garbage dump ablaze
THE POOR man's Ooty. That's how Coimbatore has been described for decades. Salubrious weather, lush green cover and sweet Siruvani water.
This is the rosy side of the city, which had drawn people from other parts of the State into making Coimbatore their permanent destination. But this vivid picture is fast becoming a thing of the past.
Garbage strewn all over the city, overflowing sewage and open drainage canals that provide ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes, and the vanishing greenery.
This is the reality. For a city that had been identified by no less an institution of the stature of the World Bank for implementing the City Corporate Plan, it seems to be jinxed even in benefiting from basic hygiene.
Like any other city, Coimbatore too has many constraints that hamper health and hygiene.
Layouts that do not have an underground drainage system, and are denied prompt garbage clearance because they are unapproved, have a litany of woes.
But a more glaring problem is the method of disposing municipal waste.
A substantial portion of the waste ends up at the compost yard in Kavundampalayam and, in a striking instance of inadequate dumping space, a huge volume gets dumped along the Valankulam, once a major water resource in the city.
This brings us to the raging issue. Both at the compost yard and along the Valankulam, garbage is set ablaze sending the residents choking for breath.
Though some Chennai-based non-governmental organisations held workshops to stress that even organised burning of waste, as a method approved by the local bodies, would send toxins into the air, the practice continues with little concern over the consequences.
Riding through smoke
What initially appeared to be a mere civic problem has acquired the proportions of a major health hazard. But, nothing much is being done to end the menace.
When the residents living in a one-km radius around the compost yard had taken to the streets with their protest, the Coimbatore Corporation quickly denied that its sanitary workers were up to any mischief.
The blame was placed on the slum dwellers nearby.
However, the civic body launched itself into laying a jeep track around the yard for patrolling to prevent burning of garbage. But there seems to be no respite.
The rag pickers in the hutments get the better of the civic authorities.
Virtually capitalising on the Corporation's inability to establish a foolproof method of preventing burning of waste, they carry on merrily sending toxic fumes into all the residential colonies around. The Sungam Bypass Road is also lit up every night with heaps of waste turning into bonfire.
The residents are upset with the Corporation too.
Having "noticed" the sanitary workers also indulging in this method of "quick disposal", they feel that the civic body is shielding its errant workers rather than hauling them up for causing serious health problems.
Even as the authorities are trying to duck accusative fingers, the smoke from the yard is not thick enough to conceal the lapses.
By Prasad K.V.
Photos:K.Ananthan
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Life
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
|
