Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Mar 27: At a time when people, in general, pinch their noses hard when passing through garbage piles, three engineers had other ideas about making the best use of the garbage. By making organic manure through the use of garbage and supported the waste management efforts of three local administrations.
Safwan and Mazin from Ullal and Shaffi from BC Road joined hands to put the garbage to use. Safwan and Mazin secured their mechanical engineering degrees through a private engineering college at Innoli while Shaffi has a civil engineering degree. They run a concern that supplies equipment of hospitals. Instead of relying on the income from that company, they are making organic manure out of wet waste and thereby joined hands with local administrations in their problem of waste handling.
The trio thought about the management of wet waste after the Pachanady garbage pile tragedy at Mangaluru. They started to study the issue, contacted experts in the matter at Bengaluru and other places and collected information. They also showed interest to find ways to make organic manure by using wet waste. The manure so made is being used for growing the vegetables in the municipal compound. In the second effort, they have also been making manure by using wet waste from a ward in Someshwar municipality. This manure also is used for growing vegetables in municipal premises. They then took up manure manufacture at Bantwal town some months back. They are making manure at Kallapu Kudru within Ullal municipal limits. Initially, the municipality plans to provide manure to local farmers free of cost. However, in course of time, the engineers plan to get some income out of the sale of manure.
Like they did with the wet waste, they have also planned to enter into an agreement with a company about the disposal of dry waste. They are discussing with the company about recycling of the waste which cannot be sold as scrap. Moreover, they are also entering into an agreement about the disposal of diapers, which pose a serious health hazard, and plan to execute a plan in a couple of months. In addition, they also have planned to spread awareness among the people. Safwan said that encouraged by the support they received from the officials and people, they are now in talks with a company about dry waste disposal.
"Initially, when we wanted to work with panchayats and municipality, commissioner Rayappa from Ullal CMC gave us the opportunity to process the wet waste in Ullal and encouraged us to implement new strategies. Health inspector Jayashekhar also supported in this matter and introduced us to Bantwal TMC chief officer Leena Breto and president Shareef and opposition party leader Govinda Prabhu. To work in a decentralised manner we initially began in Someshwara for one ward where health inspector Rajesh and Lilly and the chief officer implemented and supported our strategies. Recently we started decentralised wet waste processing in Kallapu under Ullal CMC where commissioner Rayappa, local council Bazil D’Souza and environmental engineer Yasmeen implement this plan and supported us to process this plan," the men stated.
"We wanted to achieve more in this field and innovate new by-products through a different process and research using biotechnology and engineering. We have been working on different microbes and conditions for different results and resource persons from Bengaluru and other parts of India have majorly helped us."