If everything goes as per the plan, then Dakshina Kannada (DK) and Udupi districts will get a ‘material recovery facility’ (MRF) each, first among all the districts in the State.
The department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj has promised to sanction the material recovery facility, which aims at scientific collection, storage and disposal of dry waste.
Under the system all the dry waste will be collected and will facilitate segregation, sorting of dry waste with help of machinery.
Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr R Selvamani confirmed and told DH that the zilla panchayat was identifying land for setting up of the facility.
“At present, the department had promised to sanction one centre each to Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. The estimated cost will be between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 60 lakh. The facility will be equipped with the necessary infrastructure, machinery and human power to sort, clean and store non-biodegradable waste and make them available for recycling.”
In Udupi
Under the system, the recyclable materials will be given for re-manufacturing and reprocessing, the CEO said. In Udupi, the authorities are mulling over setting up such facility at Karkala taluk.
FSTP
The Dakshina Kannada ZP is also preparing a proposal to set up faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) to provide solutions for faecal sludge management (FSM).
The land is being identified for the same.
Selvamani said, “There is one faecal sludge treatment plant at Devanahalli in Bengaluru Rural district. We had visited the plant and looked at its functioning. There is no foul smell at the plant.”
Quoting the staff at the plant, the CEO said, “There is high demand for the manure and is given to farmers. Not much space is also needed for setting up the plant.”
Under the system, faecal sludge from septic tank is collected and there is a separation process of solids from liquid. The former goes to a biogas digester, after which it goes to the sludge drain bed for dewatering for a period of 14 days. The digested sludge is used as manure while the separated water is treated and used for irrigation purpose.
Even methane gas is also generated during the process, which can be used as cooking gas, Selvamani added.