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Udupi Zilla Panchayat aims for clean district tag


Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, July 16, 2017: Zilla Panchayat deputy secretary Srinivas Rao spoke at a workshop held for NGOs and local representatives from various associations at Udupi on July 15, Saturday. The Zilla Panchayat is all set to take measures introducing the best concepts of ’Green Protocol’ enabling effective and scientific disposal of solid waste.

ZP’ Rao said that, although it has been acclaimed as being open defecation-free, Udupi district is unable to achieve the tag of clean district. The Quality Control of India grades the district at seventh place in terms of cleanliness. The administration, however, aims to reach greater heights in the ranking, as a result of which, extensive measures are taken to create awareness. The government has banned the use of plastic. In spite of the ban on the use of polythene bags, there has been no success in complete eradication of the use of plastic.


udupi district


He said one day in a week is earmarked exclusively to create awareness as part of the innovative programme initiated under Swacch Udupi Swastha Udupi. The concept of ’Thinking Thursday’ would target the gram panchayats and Anganawadi centres at grass root-level to take up the discussion and plan the programme to create awareness on the need for disposal of solid waste and maintenance of cleanliness. Green Protocol concentrates completely on the Dos and Don’ts in relation to maintaining cleanliness and the gram panchayats should attempt educating the public on this. The generation of waste should be condensed and the concept of reuse and recycle should be practised in day-to-day life.

The officer also said that the awareness programme concentrates on curtailing the use of plastic during celebrations. The most important aspect is the segregation of wet, hazardous and solid waste at the source-level. The dry waste can be recycled and reused. The use of cloth bags will be promoted. Pipe compost would be encouraged as it would help producing organic fertiliser using wet waste.

Each gram panchayat is given Rs 20 lakh to build up a solid waste management unit to enable the scientific disposal of waste. The gram panchayats should prepare detailed project reports and submit them to the government. The project fund will enable use of various machines and vehicles to transport the wastes. The units are under construction at Belmannu, Perdur, Edu, Varamballi and Maravanthe among others, said Rao.

If all the required measures are implemented, only 10% of the waste will go to the landfill site. Scarcity of land is another major problem for the construction of solid waste units. Most of the gram panchayats in the district are encountering the problems of non-availability of land. The pipe compost system has been introduced in the Anganawadi centres, he said.

The other problems which are hurdles to the maintenance cleanliness is the effluents and sewage water, said Rao and added that measures should be taken to prevent pollution of the water table due to the flow of effluents. The effluents should not be let into the rivers and the waste should not be thrown into the rivers or any other water source. Pollution through smoke spewed by vehicles can be condensed by using bicycles for transport.

The Green Protocol also concentrates on the misuse of food items. Besides, rainwater harvesting units should be introduced in all houses, he said.