What a dump
Time was when terrorism was the biggest problem for the people of Tripura. Then came garbage. Waste disposal facilities in the state, particularly in the urban areas, are woefully inadequate. A look at the waste management in Agartala, the state capital, illustrates the enormity of the problem.
Spread over 52 square kilometres, the city of 400,000 people generates 223 tonnes of solid waste daily (In 2002, the figure was 115 tonnes). But only about 68 per cent, or 158 tonnes (including about 10 tonnes of bio-medical waste) of this is collected, according to data with the Agartala Municipal Council (amc). This means that over four days, the waste left uncollected becomes more than that generated in a day. The Open National Service Scheme, a non-governmental organisation (ngo) working for collecting kitchen garbage daily, gives a figure that is even lower: it estimates only 60 per cent of waste is collected.
Serious threat An imminent threat to the residents of Agartala is contamination of drinking water with liquid waste from its biggest civil hospital
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