Kochi is all set to go green soon. The Clean City campaign of Kochi Corporation has hit schools and colleges, and they are looking out for volunteers who would run clubs in their educational institutions. This is a campaign which Kochi needs at the earliest. With waste accumulation getting worse as days pass by, such an initiative would make life better for Kochiites.

Even though the Corporation has shelled out nearly 15,000 rupees for cleaning the drains in the city, there haven’t been any remarkable changes. Hence, they are geared up to implement better plans for cleaning the city. Cleaning the drains with saline water is one of the projects that will be executed. This time, Kochi Corporation makes sure that kids play a large part in the initiative. Students who collect plastic waste would be given gifts and notebooks. So all the school kids out there, did you hear that??!!

The plastic collected from the city premises would be used for tarring the roads once they are shredded into granules. More than 1000 college and school kids will be trained to become volunteers, and they would carry out the message to schools, colleges and also neighboring areas too.

This sure looks like a smart imitative which will make our city greener and cleaner!

Kochi and its very famous ‘aroma’ are known to every nose that reaches the city from across its borders. As we inhale the stench, we exclaim ‘aah kochi ethi…!’ Do we really have to compromise Kochi’s beauty and charm to a stink that we – the citizens of Kochi – are responsible for?? Surprisingly, these very same Kochiites, while travelling abroad, whether to Singapore or the USA, do not dare dirty the roads with even a bit of paper. Why??? This is solely because the punishment in these countries is prompt as well as severe.

The Government of India has banned the use of plastic bags since April 1st 2011. But the implementation of this ban, apparently, is not among the major concerns of the people, the primary reason being that plastic bags are handy and cheap. Also, they keep the goods from getting drenched in the heavy rains, which are commonplace in our homeland. A solution to this problem, to an extent, lies in the use of jute, cotton or paper bags. In fact, plastic bags over 30 microns are recyclable and hence, do not add to the garbage mountains of the city. Piravom, a panchayat in the Ernakulam district, has been a role model in this realm by distributing cotton bags among its residents.

Who is to blame? The authorities who are supposed to put the law into action or the irresponsible citizens who are so impudent as to violate the laws of the land? A key point to be noted is that, these very same people, when travelling abroad, never litter their surroundings, but as soon as they set foot on the Indian soil, contaminate the environment by spitting and throwing trash on the road. It is, thus, very clear that it is the attitude that is in dire need of change. Every individual has to be made aware that littering our neighbourhood is just the same as littering our homes.

How can each one of us tackle this problem? This is a complicated question to which there is a very simple answer – not to be the educated fool who comes in grand cars and throws the waste to the roadsides, not sparing a thought as to whether it will be dumped in the garbage bin or rot away and become the breeding ground of an epidemic.

Cleaning up the city would be an important step in this direction, but the effort will go down the drain if we do not maintain it so. Finding a proper place to dump the waste and treating it appropriately is the long-term solution to this problem. In many places, people have come up with innovative ideas of waste-management. For example, the present day Ukkadam bus stand at Coimbatore has been built in the Valaamkullam area that was once covered with tonnes of waste. Along similar lines, Rajagiri College has allocated a certain area of their land for the treatment of waste materials. Each of us should follow such examples and contribute in our own way to making the city clean and, more importantly, in keeping it clean.

This way we can transform Kochi from a stinking city to a sparkling one!

“If there’s somethin’ strange in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call.? Dirt Busters!!
If it’s somethin’ weird an it won’t look good
Who ya gonna call? Dirt Busters.!!”

Cochin city can now sing this song, because the city now has its own
24 hour garbage buster team. Next time you see a chips packet with
some left over food or waste with a dead animal thrown in, that
qualifies you for calling the toll free hot line number.

The number to call is 1800-425-1106.

They are equipped with a control room with a vehicle functioning round
the clock. But they might not appreciate you waking them up to report
cigarette butts.!

A very nice move by the Mayor of Kochi.! But a garbage customer
service help line is not going to do the job till people learn the
basics of cleanliness.