Thiruvananthapuram: The World Bank has offered its expertise and financial assistance to Kerala to manage waste accumulated in towns and cities across the southern state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday (March 21). CM Vijayan met World Bank officials at his office here and discussed the issue in the wake of a recent fire that occurred at the waste treatment plant of Cochin Corporation at Brahmapuram. In a social media post, the Chief Minister said a drone survey will be conducted at all the waste collection centres in the state in association with the World Bank.
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“Had a fruitful interaction with the @WorldBank delegation which has offered its expertise and finances in support of GoK’s comprehensive waste management drive. Let’s work together towards a cleaner and greener Kerala!” CM Vijayan tweeted.
Had a fruitful interaction with the @WorldBank delegation which has offered its expertise and finances in support of GoK's comprehensive waste management drive. Let's work together towards a cleaner and greener Kerala! pic.twitter.com/I8gOSIaHDL
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) March 21, 2023
He said the World Bank has assured financial assistance and technical expertise considering the seriousness of the fire at the Brahmapuram plant.
“The World bank team has informed that they were ready to conduct a fire audit at the waste collection centres and treatment plants across the state after the drone survey and agreed to provide further assistance,” CM Vijayan said in a Facebook post.
The World Bank assured the assistance of experts from the International Solid Waste Association, he said.
Brahmapuram plant caught fire on March 2 and continued to rage till March 12 when the fire service officials and the district authorities managed to douse it. The toxic smoke had spread to various parts of the city and surrounding municipalities causing difficulties to the local residents and worsened the air quality.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
