Status report by the state of Kerala on waste management and sanitation, 10/11/2022
Status report filed by the government of Kerala in Original Application No. 606/2018 before the National Green Tribunal on waste management and sanitation.
The report informed the NGT about the status of solid waste management; non-biodegradable waste management; biodegradable waste management; legacy waste management; liquid waste management and industrial wastewater management.
The state of Kerala has given due importance to waste management and sanitation and Kerala is declared as open defecation free state in 2016. However, non-availability for suitable land, public litigation and protests against waste management projects have been hampering implementation of projects.
Setting up of a new faecal sludge treatment plant in the state is the need of the hour, but projects for the same have been hampered seriously by the non-availability of land, primarily due to local agitations and resistance. It has been decided to explore the scope of identifying degraded lands including quarries, which have road access and no human habitation nearby, for the purpose of setting up new FSTPs. State level meetings were held since September 2020 by the Chief Secretary for assessing progress made in implementing action plans for remediation of polluted river stretches. Overall 64 meetings have been held at the level of the Chief Secretary for addressing matters connected with the National Green Tribunal.
In Kerala, there are no "live dump sites". 44 old legacy dumpsites were identified in different parts of the state, out of which 18 were remediated. Process for bio-mining of legacy waste is progressing at various stages in the remaining 26 dump sites, among which 6 sites with large volumes are under remediation. Action is being taken to start remediation work at the other 20 small dumpsites having a total capacity of 2.67 lakh tonnes, said the report by the government of Kerala, November 10, 2022.