Tiruchi Corporation ramps up beautification efforts to eradicate dumping of garbage

Conservancy workers at Kilapadayachi Street in Tiruchi.
| Photo Credit: special arrangement

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Tiruchi City Corporation has identified more ‘garbage vulnerable points’ in the city to carry out beautification projects to effectively curb garbage dumping in public spaces.  

A garbage vulnerable point (GVP) is a spot where the continual dumping of garbage occurs in an area. Such areas, as have been identified in the fourth phase, are located along main roads and near slums, sources said.  

Due to the dumping of garbage in such areas, leachate from the rotting household and meat waste and water stagnating in discarded single-use plastics create a foul atmosphere and pose health concerns for residents and road users. 

To eradicate and prevent the dumping of garbage in such hotspots, identified GVPs are given a facelift. Over half of 600 such spots, identified in the past, have stopped accumulating garbage and have become cleaner, sources said.  

Beautification works include thoroughly cleaning and bleaching the area with the help of conservancy workers, paving and placing bollards, planting shrubs and saplings, and painting thematic murals at GVPs.  

Such work is intended to sensitise residents against dumping garbage in public places. In most cases, residents near a beautified GVP actively see to it that such areas are kept clean. They do so by reprimanding people who fling garbage in the area. 

To prevent dumping garbage in public spaces, the City Corporation has also ramped up the collection of garbage from households keeping mind a resident’s availability. This is because in some areas, garbage is left uncollected due to the unavailability of householders at certain times of the day. When this garbage is left uncollected, householders discard it in public places where dustbins were once kept but have since been removed as Tiruchi is a dustbin-free city.

“Streamlining of segregation and collection of door-to-door collection of household waste will eventually eradicate GVPs in the city,” said M. Vijay Chandran, City Health Officer.