Microland Foundation, a dedicated social development arm of Microland Limited, in partnership with a local NGO Clean Coonoor and Coonoor Municipality enabled the upgradation of the Wet Waste Processing Facility at Ottupattrai, Coonoor by sponsoring Rs 60 Lakhs plus towards modernizing infrastructure, equipment, and processes.
The facility now receives and scientifically manages all types of organic waste up to 8 TPD from Coonoor residents, the market, and a few bulk generators. This segregated waste is converted to Grade A certified quality compost which can be sold to farmers/estates to reinvigorate the soil in the region at a nominal price. This is a major step taken towards a decentralized approach to Integrated Waste Management.
The Wet Waste Processing unit was inaugurated by Supriya Sahu IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change, and Forest Department, Government of Tamil Nadu along with S.P. Amrith, IAS Collector, The Nilgiris District, L. Sheela Cathrine, Chairperson, Coonoor Municipality, M. Wasim Raja, Vice Chairman, Coonoor Municipality and T. Krishnamurthy, Commissioner, Coonoor Municipality in the presence of Kalpana Kar, Trustee of the Microland Foundation, Rajashree Pinnamaneni, Vice President, Gandipet Welfare Society, Samantha Iyanna, Managing Trustee and Dr P. J. Vasanthan, Trustee of Clean Coonoor.
Expressing her joy on the occasion, Supriya Sahu stated, “I am extremely happy and proud to see the continuous efforts and the remarkable work we are doing for waste management in the region. The journey we began with converting a dump yard into a beautiful waste management facility and is today getting further augmented with a dedicated windrow composting yard.” She further stated, “The upgradation of the wet waste facility equips it to handle segregated organic domestic kitchen waste, poultry, and other market waste and garden waste. Capacity has been built to handle the spikes during tourist season and festivals.”
District Collector, S P Amrith expressed his commitment to replicating the model for other parts of the Nilgiris to process SWM so the Biosphere is protected from environmental pollution. He complimented the private-public partnership and said that community efforts of this kind are role models for sustainable development and growth.
Commissioner Coonoor Municipality, Krishnamurthy expressed his satisfaction at the unit stabilizing in one quarter and providing the city with a processing capacity for over 240 Tonnes per month, of more than half the city’s waste. ‘We handed over the Wet waste Yard in October in a run-down state and today we cannot recognize it. We are so proud of the progress.”
Chairperson, Coonoor Municipality stated her satisfaction with the efforts made by the community in partnership and wants to include the smaller surrounding villages in the effort.
Expressing her gratitude on the occasion, Kalpana Kar, Trustee, Microland Foundation, stated, “We feel extremely humbled to be able to support this transformation. We believe that a Center of Excellence for decentralized management of wet waste is being created and this will become a role model for small towns, especially tourist towns.” What is most comforting is the participation from different segments of the community and the behavioral shift it signals. She further stated, “We as an organization want to contribute towards long-term solutions for prevailing challenges within the region.”
Rajashree Pinnamaneni, Vice President, Gandipet Welfare Society, expressed her pleasure in witnessing the spirit of collaboration and commitment within all the partners, she stated “Clean Coonoor with the support of other individual and institutional donors has taken up the responsibility of the management of waste by upgrading and operating the Resource Recovery Centre and now the Wet Waste Processing unit. It has been heartening to see all the partners join hands to support the shared vision of sustainable waste management for the Nilgiris.”
Dr Vasanthan, Trustee “Clean Coonoor” said that “they have worked together with all stakeholders in an inclusive collaborative spirit to ensure that the Wet Waste Processing facility, leachate treatment unit, sieving and bagging facility are constructed to ensure that Grade A fine compost can be produced to return the nutrients to the soil. The Yard had to be refurbished and the legacy waste removed and sieved before the complete renovation was done.”
‘Clean Coonoor’ and Coonoor Municipality under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) since 2019 has been working closely to deal with various fractions of waste. Microland Foundation has been working closely on this mission and supporting with required equipment such as a 1.5-tonne High-Temperature Nonfuel Burner, a 50 KVA Servo Stabilizer, 68 HP Tractor equipped with a front-loader, generators, garbage kiosks in strategic areas, and pickup vans. The initiatives have costed Rs. 75 lakhs plus and is significantly important for a Cleaner Coonoor.
Microland Foundation will continue to work towards supporting the development of the facility by helping build an eco-system for technical mentoring and creating systems and processes for documentation and replicability. Through its various works and initiatives, the Foundation wants to support the area to become an Urban-Rural-Tourist-Hill Station Model for sustainable waste management and community engagement.
Microland Foundation has been established as a dedicated social development arm, forging meaningful partnerships to conceptualize and implement projects that solve society’s most pressing problems around education, environment, employability, and health. A CSR Board of distinguished professionals brings deep cross-sectoral expertise and digital inventiveness along with dedicated employees of Microland championing initiatives to form an advantageous and conducive ecosystem for the Foundation’s operations. We are dedicated to uplifting and empowering lives with a bottom-up and collaborative approach while promising long-term commitment to issues and sectors.
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