Thiruvananthapuram: While the state-level empowered committee wants corporation’s model of waste management to be reviewed, the health wing is going ahead with revamp of community-level waste management initiatives.The project wing will revamp 10 community biogas plants which have been dysfunctional for a long time. The annual maintenance contract for these waste management units has been fixed at Rs 18.44 lakh at a rate of Rs 1.84 lakh per biogas plant.The plants in markets including Palayam,Vattiyoorkavu, Sreekaryam, Perunelli and Vallakadavu will be revived. The biogas plants at women and children hospital, Thycaud, and school for deaf students, Jagathy, have also been included in the project.In 2017, the corporation conducted an audit of dysfunctional biogas plants in the city, which were installed as community models. They became dysfunctional owing to lack of proper upkeep. The consolidated report on community biogas plants prepared by the health wing pointed out that eight out of 14 plants were not functional and that corporation had not framed annual maintenance contracts (AMC) with any of the 14 agencies which installed the plants.A variety of reasons were enlisted for plants becoming dysfunctional. The biogas plant at Peroorkada, which was installed to process two tonnes of waste a day, was out of order due to a damaged pulverizer.At Kazhakkoottam, the plant with a capacity to process 1,500kg a day, was overloaded and became dysfunctional. The plant at Sreekanteswaram park, which had a capacity of 1,200kg a day, was unable to process waste because of lack of sufficient quantity of waste. While another community biogas plant installed at Sree Chithra poor home also became dysfunctional due to overloading, the report noted.As per the new plan, the biogas plant at Sree Chithra poorhome will also be made functional. The health committee’s failure to renew AMCs and recruit trained personnel to maintain community waste management units had led to the failure of 236 aerobic bins in the city. The civic body had spent close to Rs 1.25 crore to set up community biogas plants in public spots, schools and markets. The plant at Palayam, which was the first high-capacity plant to be launched by the city corporation in 2012, had long displayed the status ‘Not functioning’.The aerobic bin unit at Palayam will also be revamped at a cost of Rs 6.72 lakh. The corporation officials said that with AMC being ensured for community-level waste plants, a major concern regarding mass generators of waste will be redressed.

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