The opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) has alleged that mounds of waste have reappeared at the Kochi Corporation’s solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram.
After visiting Brahmapuram on Thursday, UDF councillors led by Antony Kureethara and UDF parliamentary party secretary M.G. Aristotle said the situation at the plant flew in the face of the civic body’s claims that crores of rupees had been spent for treating waste at the facility in compliance with the guidelines of the National Green Tribunal after the huge fire at the plant in March 2023.
Untreated waste was getting piled up along the existing windrow compost plant. Owing to inaccessibility, waste from trucks was being unloaded on the tiled road leading to the plant, and this was being dragged to both sides using excavators. This would pose serious problems in the future, they said.
Mr. Kureethara and Mr. Aristotle alleged that in place of the previous ₹452 that the Corporation used to spend for treatment of a tonne of waste, ₹2,500 was being spent now for treating the same quantity of waste. Despite that, waste has spilled out of the plant to the road, they alleged.
Responding to the charges, Health Standing Committee chairperson T.K. Ashraf admitted that there were limitations to processing of waste at the Brahmapuram plant site. A black solider fly-based treatment plant with capacity to treat around 75 tonnes of waste a day was functional at the site against the 150 to 200 tonnes of waste brought to Brahmapuram. There was a proposal for a windrow compositing plant, but it had to be dropped, he said.
Mr. Ashraf hoped that waste treatment would be efficient once the compressed biogas plant being built by the BPCL-Kochi Refinery at Brahmapuram was commissioned.
Published – January 24, 2025 01:15 am IST
