Kochi Corporation to install weighing machines to verify waste disposal estimates

The Kochi Corporation is set to install two weighing machines at its solid waste treatment facility in Brahmapuram after realising that it currently lacks any mechanism to quantify the waste being disposed of, relying solely on figures estimated by the companies entrusted with disposal.

Also read | Waste management bill of Kochi Corporation soars past ₹32 crore after Brahmapuram fire

The issue was raised at the last council meeting by V.P. Chandran, Councillor for the Vytilla division, who pointed out that the Corporation had spent over ₹13 crore on the collection and disposal of waste, including non-biodegradable waste, during the previous financial year. He expressed concern that the civic body may have been taken for a walk by inflated figures provided by the companies, taking advantage of the fact that the Corporation had no independent system to verify them.

“Since the Brahmapuram fire in 2023, the Corporation has had no mechanism to estimate the quantity of waste for which it has been spending crores on collection and disposal. Two weighing machines dating back to the terms of previous UDF councils have progressively fallen into disuse. This is no less than a scam,” said Mayor V.K. Minimol. She added that the first of the two proposed weighing machines would be installed within three months to weigh waste entering and leaving the Brahmapuram facility.

Left Democratic Front (LDF) parliamentary party leader V.A. Sreejith noted that, by Mr. Chandran’s own account, the situation had been the same since the time when Ms. Minimol herself was Chairperson of the health standing committee, and he was a member of it. “The current works standing committee Chairperson, who also served as health standing committee Chairperson during the previous LDF council, should know better. Whether the Corporation ever had weighing machines and, if so, what happened to them will have to be verified,” he said.

Mr. Chandran said that the Corporation had contracted two companies to collect plastic waste from households. Together, they collected over 1.89 crore kilograms of waste, disposed of at a rate of ₹4 per kilogram, amounting to around ₹7.56 crore during the last fiscal. Another ₹5.38 crore was paid to two other companies for the collection and disposal of around 2.15 crore kilograms of biodegradable waste at ₹2.50 per kilogram. In addition, transporting waste to Brahmapuram cost around ₹2.40 crore. The Corporation also has to pay as service charge to the agency concerned ₹67 lakh, which is 19.50% of the user fee collected, for bulk waste collection from commercial establishments, including hotels. Bulk waste collection stood at 3.11 crore kilograms of biodegradable waste during the last fiscal, Mr. Chandran said.

He added that the Corporation still owes crores on these accounts, making it imperative to examine whether it has suffered losses due to inflated estimates of waste. “Civic bodies are supposed to progressively reduce waste by adhering tp the principle of reduce, reuse and reclaim. But in our case, the quantity of waste seems to be rising imposing substantial burden on the Corporation. That we have no mechanism to verify the estimates given by contractors make it even worse,” Mr. Chandran said.