Ward 99 residents cheer as KMC gets busy restoring pond
When a JCB, deployed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation moved into action to restore a more-than-half-filled pond this morning, it gave the residents of Ward 99 some ray of hope.
After an intense initiative of waste segregation into biodegradable and non-biodegradable categories, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is now focusing on e-waste. The KMC along with the Lion’s Club has undertaken a pilot project of collecting e-waste in different parts of the city.
According to the KMC, an exponential increase in e-waste has been observed in the country and in Kolkata. E-waste is particularly dangerous due to toxic chemicals that naturally leak from the metals inside when buried. Such wastes when disposed of or recycled carelessly can cause damage to health, posing risks to humans, animals and the environment. Considering the presence of toxic substances that are hazardous, the civic body has started the process of e-waste collection in some of its wards.
Notably, the civic body has been distributing separate bins to the citizens in various wards urging the people to dump bio-degradable and non biodegradable domestic wastes at source, separately. The process was started in December in which KMC has targeted to distribute 38 lakh buckets and bins of two different colours – green and blue.
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According to the mayor of KMC, Firhad Hakim, a pilot project has been started by KMC with the concerted efforts of the Lions Club of collecting ewaste. “As e-waste is a big problem in Kolkata, we will undertake the e-waste collection in an organized manner,” said the KMC mayor, Firhad Hakim today. “By disposing the ewaste randomly anywhere or at Dhapa, leads to pollution. Also, it cannot be destroyed naturally. Therefore, we have started to collect e-waste and a processing system. For this, we have installed e-waste drop boxes in Boroughs I, IX and XVI, where spare mobile phones, laptops, computers and so on can be dumped. It would then be sent to the processor,” added Mr Hakim.
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