The Coimbatore city’s rich flora- fauna and numerous water bodies stand threatened by the rapid rate of urbanization, primarily due to indiscriminate disposal of solid wastes across the city . This situated has been further complicated by poor solid waste management practises followed by the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation(CMC) in the past decade.
This situation assumes even more importance, as more floating population find their way into city due to its fast rate of urbanization. The CMC, taking cognizance of this situation, has initiated a massive revamp of Solid waste management (SWM) under the JNNURM scheme for SWM. However, to manage solid waste effectively:
• Solid wastes needs to be segregated at source as wet, dry( recyclable) and hazardous, to be carried on for processing it accordingly.
• Also indiscriminate littering in open spaces needs to be stopped, as it makes managing wastes all the more difficult.
So, in order to drive home these points and create public awareness and participation for the same, the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation has initiated a massive source segregation and litter collection campaign, jointly organized and executed with the help of NGO’s, corporate and some members of the Home Guards.
This whole campaign will run on two fronts. One is the source segregation campaign, that will educate households from all the constituent 100 wards to segregate wastes at source. The project entails, coordinating with a ward counsellor, sanitary inspector and sanitary workers of a particular ward and jointly organize – door to door awareness campaign, motivate and engage sanitary workers and ensure collection of segregated waste from all households.
On the other front, a parallel campaign to generate a record number of volunteer participation, of over and above 2 lakhs, for the litter collection drive will be in process. This entails