Private agencies to be roped in

The Vadakara Municipality is planning to team up with various private agencies in the region to take up a comprehensive source-level waste treatment scheme with the support of residents and industrial units. A special fund will be earmarked to support the scheme, which will strive to promote the decentralised waste treatment initiatives.

The Ecosan toilet project formulated by Centre for Water Resources and Management (CWRDM), here, to curb groundwater pollution due to the unscientific treatment of septage, is scripting a new story in ecological sanitation in the district.

As a pilot project, the CWRDM established Ecosan toilets at four locations in Chathamangalam Grama Panchayat last year and owing to the huge success of the project more panchyats have come forward to set up these toilets which are very eco-friendly.

Epicentre was 4 km north of Karipur: CESS

A earthquake measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale was experienced in different parts of Kozhikode district and bordering areas of Malappuram district around 2.15 p.m. on Wednesday, sending a wave of panic among the people. No loss of life or large-scale destruction of property was reported from any part of the district. Though simultaneous caving in of wells was reported from a few places, including Pavangad in the city, there was no conclusive evidence to link it to the quake.

A seminar on ‘effective waste treatment measures' jointly organised by the district chapter of the Institution of Engineers and the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) here on Thursday called upon the city Corporation to take up a public campaign for solid-waste treatment by mobilising the support of all residents' associations, merchant forums, and commercial establishments.

The seminar, which pinpointed the futility of hunting for superior technologies for waste treatment, also urged the Corporation to promote the setting up of maximum number of vermicompost units and biogas plants at households to address the waste management crisis.

KOCHI: To prevent the illegal dumping of waste in public places, the Corporation will soon launch a special health squad. The squad will be divided into four units consisting of officials from the health department of the Corporation.

Announcing the plan to set up the units at the launch of the pre-monsoon cleaning programme ‘Mazhayethum Munpe’, Mayor Tony Chammany said that the primary objective of the health squad is to make sure that the waste treatment methods are strictly followed by the public.

Reviving its preference for hydel systems as sources of sustainable power generation, the State once again is opening up investment opportunities in ‘green' power with the identification of 57 small hydro-electric projects that have a combined capacity to generate nearly 170 MW of power (more than 440 million units a year).

The ‘green power house' is being opened up after a gap of two decades and is a key feature that expects to lure investors through Emerging Kerala 2012.

Studies carried out by a team of scientists at the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) have revealed high levels of phosphorus in the soil samples from Kozhikode and Wayanad districts.

KOZHIKODE (Kerala), 6 APRIL: Expressing opposition to the mineral mining policies of the Centre which had led to the “loot and plunder” of countrys natural resources, the CPI-M today asked governme

To tide over the power crisis, the Centre has allotted 50 MW of additional power to the state, Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said here on Sunday.

Finance Minister K.M. Mani has proposed a two pronged approach to address the state’s worsening waste management crisis with an allocation of Rs 100 crore each for source level waste treatment plants and centralised high tech waste management plants in the state annual budget for 2012-13.

It has been proposed to construct large scale technology oriented waste processing plants in PPP model in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Kozhikode districts with an allocation of Rs 100 crores.