27 e-toilets have been installed in Pathanamthitta district

The Additional District Magistrate H. Salimraj has directed the Keltron as well as the Eram Scientific Solutions Limited that had installed e-toilets in different parts of the district to ensure trouble-free functioning of all the 27 e-toilets in the district in the next one week itself.
The ADM, leading a team comprising Babu George, former District Panchayat president; P. N. Madhusoodhanan, Sanitation Mission district co-ordinator; Prasanth R. Nair of the private company, and Chinchu Prasad, Keltron representative, had inspected all the 27 e-toilets installed in the district on Saturday following complaints of certain technical snags at various toilets.

Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Limited has begun preliminary works for plant

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s proposal to encourage municipalities to go in for waste-to-energy projects has come as a shot in the arm for the Coimbatore Corporation. In his Budget speech on Thursday, the Minister said: “India tosses out several thousand tonnes of garbage each day. We will evolve a scheme to encourage cities and municipalities to take up waste-to-energy projects in PPP mode, which would be neutral to different technologies. I propose to support municipalities that will implement waste-to-energy projects through different instruments such as viability gap funding, repayable grant and low cost capital.”

The Ganga Action Parivar (GAP) has taken primary steps towards constructing the first zero-waste, “bio-digester” toilet in Uttar Pradesh along the banks of the Ganga.

The initiative is part of GAP’s drive to build 5,000 eco-friendly toilets in villages along the 2,500-km stretch of the Ganga and also integrates its “Green Kashi and Green Prayag” campaign. A special “brick puja” was performed by the organisers on the banks of the Ganga on Tuesday.

Will reduce garbage generation by 1,500 tonnes per day

Corporate honchos and key industry leaders, on Thursday, committed to reduce 1,500 tonne of solid waste per day in the City by World Environment Day on June 5. The fourth day of ‘Wake Up, Clean Up Bengaluru’ fair saw marketing bigwigs, civic experts and BBMP representatives chalking out ways to tackle corporate waste and reduce the quantity of garbage handled by BBMP from the current 3,500 tonne to 2,000 tonne per day.

Collector Rajendra Ratnoo has redoubled the efforts to transform Cuddalore into a “zero-waste” district before January 2013. He has started propagating the message in all the panchayats, town panchayats and municipalities.

Addressing the meeting of the panchayat presidents and representatives of the Self-Help Groups at Panruti near here on Tuesday, the Collector noted that all good things should begin in right earnest. He said that in his camp office only recyclable things were being used and one-time use plastic articles were totally dispensed with. He pointed out that the plastic articles were hazardous to health, both on earth and in the sea. As the plastic articles would remain in sub-soil for hundreds of years without any degradation, it would prevent rain water to percolate into the soil.

Industrialists planning to start polluting units in four districts of the State are unable to get the Consent to Establish (CTE) from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) as the government is not willing to relax norms.

According to TNPCB sources, the board has not taken any decision on the demand from industrialists to set up new units, including dyeing and fabric units, in Karur, Tirupur, Erode and Namakkal towns where water pollution has been a problem for a decade and more.

Passers-by and motorists could not help but pause for a moment and observe the little set-up beside the Saphalyam Complex at Palayam in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday morning.

AHMEDABAD: After a campaign against litterbugs and procurements to spruce up waste collection in the city, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) now has a roadmap for a zero waste Ahmedabad by 2031. The document, the only of its kind in the country was prepared with the help of United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD), which identified a consultant and sponsored $20,000 for the report.

The city was part of the 'ISWA World Congress 2011- Moving Towards Zero Waste for a Green Economy - Role of Local Authorities' which deliberated zero waste policies and strategies. The congress gave examples of US, UK and Philippines as countries that made significant progress in instituting a zero waste society.

After not-so-successful attempts at source segregation of waste initiatives in the city, the Coimbatore Corporation is gearing up for introducing a few measures aimed at restarting the process. And the civic body has every reason to do so because at stake is Rs. 96 crore – the money it has invested to put in place a solid waste management system.

Sources in the Corporation say that under the Shunya – Zero Waste Management project, the civic body with help from ICLEI, an NGO, and others, is planning to conduct a day-long workshop on source segregation of waste for stake-holders and civil society organisations and follow it up with introducing the process in a few wards on a trial basis.

In the grievance meet held here on Friday, Collector Ajay Yadav assured farmers that polluting units that do not conform to Zero Liquidity Discharge norms would be shut down.

Addressing farmers’ grievances, he said, “We will take measures to close down the factories discharging effluents into Palar and not complying with zero liquid discharge. I have discussed this with the chairman of Pollution Control Board.”