Between 7th and 16th of December, the Chennai Corporation has made a record by clearing 1.09 lakh tonne of garbage from across the city. Initial estimates from the Corporation state that the floods have caused an excess amount of garbage of about 1 lakh tonne in the city. As per latest figures, so far, the city corporation has crossed 1 lakh tonne target in waste collection.
All earlier records of the corporation`s garbage collection are surpassed by the recent deluge. On 12th of December, a total of 14,269 tonne of garbage was collected against its conventional collection of 5,000.
As the streets were not cleaned effectively, the civic body has been dumping all wastes caused by floods like mattresses, plastic items, e-waste, bio medical waste, debris, etc in the dumping grounds of Perungudi and Kodungayur.
According to sources, there is a delay in clearing garbage in various areas. This is caused by many reasons including traffic congestion, poor road condition, absenteeism among conservancy workers, lack of enough space at garbage transfer stations, sludgy nature of garbage and water soaked garbage, damaged vehicles, lack of enough diesel supply, etc.
Over 18,947 workers from the Chennai Corporation and 7,045 from other bodies are indulged in the clean drive. 404 compactors from the civic body, 397 private trucks and 141 JCBs are used for clearance of garbage here. The 7,830 medical camps conducted in various places of the city have benefitted 13.11 lakh people.