Meghalaya is all set to follow Kerala’s Alappuzha waste management model.
The visit of an official team from Meghalaya to Alappuzha city to study and copy a ‘unique waste management’ being implemented there will soon bear results with the urban affairs department now implementing two waste management projects on a pilot basis in Shillong city similar to that of the city in the southern state.
“Following our visit to Alappuzha, we are now implementing two compost plants on a pilot basis at two localities of Shillong city, one at Pohkseh and another at Lawjynriew,” Meghalaya urban affairs minister Hamletson Dohling told reporters in Shillong on Tuesday.
He said that the two pilot projects are of low cost and each compost plant can treat around 30 tonnes per day.
Dohling said that compost plants in Alappuzha city were very helpful and they have been set up in different localities with the cooperation of the people.
He hoped that the burden and pressure that the dumping ground at Mawlai Mawïong is facing at present would be reduced to some extend if implementation of two pilot projects is successful.
Waste not less than 130 tons everyday is being brought to the dumping ground at Mawlai Mawïong from different parts of Shillong city.
In April last year, a delegation led by Dohling along with minister in-charge public health engineering, Samlin Malngiang and former MLA of South Tura and present Lok Sabha MP from Tura, Agatha K. Sangma had visited Alappuzha city to study the unique waste management model being implemented there.
The Meghalaya team held consultations and discussions with officials of the Alappuzha Municipal Board and visited different sites of the project to gather firsthand knowledge and experience and how the Alappuzha model could be replicated in Meghalaya.
The team also decided that implementation of waste management projects would start in Shillong city and Tura town by focusing on waste segregation as being done in Alappuzha city.
The team also set a target to ensure that Shillong city is able to manage and make the city waste-free as early as possible keeping in mind the hosting of the National Games in 2022.
“In Alappuzha, wastes are being segregated between biodegradable and non-biodegradable. Alappuzha has a decentralized plan that enabled every household to go green and treat domestic biodegradable waste in their own backyards. We also want to decentralize waste management down to localities with the cooperation of the people, otherwise we are facing a big problem from now on,” Dohling said.
As per of the ambitious project, the Alappuzha Municipal Board had established 5000 kitchen bins, 3000 biogas plants, 2800 pipe composting units and 218 aerobic compositing units in Municipal areas by way of which, the town was able to take care 80 percent of its waste produced by a population of 1.74 lakh.
Alappuzha has the distinction and recognition for its successful and sustainable management of solid waste under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as one of the best across the world.
The Centre for Science and Environment had rated Alappuzha in 2016 as the top cleanest town in India followed by Mysuru and Panaji. Alappuzha is a city with an urban population of 174,164. The city is the third among districts in Kerala having highest literacy rate.