Ker Govt's survey on waste management to cover 60 lakh houses

With disposal of solid waste emerging as a great concern in the state, Kerala government is getting ready to conduct a survey, covering 60 lakh houses, to collect data about existing waste management systems in the state.
The initiative was part of the CPI(M)-led LDF government's ambitious 'Haritha Keralam' (Green Kerala) mission, which envisages a clean and green state through waste management, organic farming and conservation of water resources with the support of people, a senior official said. The survey, covering cities, towns and villages, was expected to give a clear picture about the solid waste management systems in state houses and the data would be used for evolving a better plan for sustainable waste management. The three-day survey, scheduled to begin on December 7, will be conducted with the help of a mobile app, Haritha Keralam Mission Vice-Chairman T N Seema said. The survey would be conducted by the state-run Suchitwa Mission, the nodal agency for sanitation, she said. "The objective of the government is to evolve a sustainable solid waste management plan. Through the survey, we are planning to collect details about the existing waste management systems in our households," Seema told PTI. "The collected data will be codified and used by the civic authorities to formulate innovative and sustainable system for solid waste management," she said.

Detailing the modes of the drive, she said children, especially high school and college students, and the members of women self-help group Kudumbashree would be deployed to conduct the door-to-door survey.
"Students and Kudumbashree workers will be given training to use the mobile app.
There will be a questionnaire in the app comprising questions like whether there is any waste management system in the house, is the system works satisfactorily and so on," she said.
The volunteers would upload the data through their android phones with the help of the app, she said. "The mode of survey will be a bit different in geographically vulnerable coastal and tribal areas," Seema, a former Rajya Sabha member, added.

Besides the disposal of solid waste, the state government is planning to undertake a number of initiatives including reviving water resources like ponds, rivers, lakes and streams and increasing the area of land under cultivation as part of the Haritha Keralam programme.
Land cleaned up through this project will be used for vegetable cultivation, so as to achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture.Power generation from solar energy and wind energy would also be a part of this project, official sources said. Haritha Keralam is envisaged as a peoples' participatory programme on the lines of literacy mission, democratic decentralisation and peoples' planning, they added.