Callous dumping of waste at public places by the local bodies itself has

been posing alarming public health risk in the Central Travancore district of
Pathanamthitta. With the onset of monsoon, viral fever began to spread to an
epidemic proportion in many parts of the district. The highly literate district
has been facing alarming health risk posed by the environmental pollution
owing to the alleged negligence on the part of the civic authorities as well as
the official machinery in ensuring proper waste disposal, sanitation and
pollution control measures. Irresponsible dumping of waste in public places
has converted the major towns of Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta, Adoor,
Kozhencherry, Ranni, Mallappally and Konni into more or less a garbage
dumping yard, making it safe breeding grounds for mosquitoes as well as
rodents. Pathanamthitta municipality continues to dump all sorts of solid
waste at the open yards near the private bus stand, behind the municipal office
and along the Ring Road. The criminal negligence of the municipal
authorities towards safe waste disposal has made life miserable to the general
public, besides posing epidemic at the district headquarters, alleged
A.Sureshkumar, municipal councillor.He said dumping of the stinking waste
from the slaughter house, fish market and vegetable market along the Ring
Road has become a major pollution menace in the town.

The Thiruvalla municipality continues to dump waste the waste collected

from different parts of the town at the wetlands close by a private medical
college and a few major educational institutions in the thickly populated
locality in the town itself. The stench emanting from the filth has made life
miserable to the patients at the hospital as well as the local residents and
business establishments, alleged P.D.George, Thiruvalla Vigilence Council
president. Mr George has called upon the civic body to take immediate steps
to bring an end to this pollution menace by initiating a fool-proof waste
disposal mechanism on a warfooting. He alleged that the civic body’s
irresponsible dumping of waste in the ecologically fragile wetland has already
caused irreparable damage to the environment and eco system. Mosquito and
other flies breed in the waterlogged area while rodents thrive on the heaps of
waste, posing pollution menace and health hazard to the local population.
 Major panchayats of Kozhencherry, Konni, Pandalam and Mallappally too
generate huge quantity of solid waste and absence of proper sewage disposal
mechanism has been the bane of these panchayat headquarters situated on one
or the other river bank. The solid waste heaped by the local body itself behind
the panchayat office it the heart of Kozhencherry town is a major health
problem. Waste disposal in Adoor is allegedly at its worst, making the town
and surrounding areas prone for many vector-borne diseases. A good number
of viral fever cases, especially dengue, have been reported from
Enadimangalam near Adoor. It is noteworthy that the Central Travancore
district is yet to recover from the secondary complications of the vector-borne
viral fever epidemic with symptoms akin to chikunguniya that had reportedly
claimed more than 100 lives, besides leaving over two lakh people infected,
three years ago.