While biowaste treatment plants have been given the cold shoulder by city-dwellers, they have gained many takers in the coastal area of Kovalam.
The tourist spot, which has always dealt with the pangs of turning into a dumping yard for the nearby wards, is taking to biowaste plants in a big way.
Around 1,000 residents have come forward to opt for decentralised waste mechanisms here under the Comprehensive Waste Management Project of the Tourism Department kicked off last week.
Under the project, which has been sanctioned Rs 1.38 crore by the Tourism Department, biowaste plants of half-metre cube or one-metre cube with a capacity of treating four kilos of waste a day would be installed in houses. This would enable the residents to use biogas equivalent to saving LPG for half or one hour.
The project, when announced, had raised serious doubts among the residents, says Harbour councillor Sudheer Khan.
‘’We convinced them that biogas plants do not mean foul smell or extra work. We also gave them the option to choose the plant from any of the ten or twelve service providers/agencies approved by the Suchitwa Mission. They have to put in a beneficiary amount of ten per cent only, the rest will be funded by the Suchitwa Mission and Tourism Department. And now, just days after the scheme was officially kicked off, we are getting a huge response. From Vellar and Harbour wards, where Kovalam area falls, some 1,000 applications have already been filled up and returned,’’ Sudheer said.
However, not all 1,000 are for biowaste plants, some of the residents have opted for pipe-composting, Sudheer said. The cost of setting up a biowaste plant is approximately Rs 12,000, which puts the beneficiary contribution at Rs 1,200. The financially poor who opt for pipe-composting can get the service free of cost.
The Kovalam Development Scheme of the Tourism Department only includes a Rs 15-crore water supply project, Rs 50-lakh Kovalam Edakkal beautification scheme, Rs 91 lakh beach drainage project, Rs 44-lakh Hawwa beach development and ` 48-lakh Kovalam parking area development, other than the waste management project.
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