| Paravur Municipality
in Eranakulam District of Kerala State has a population of
27904 people (1991 census) and estimated generation of solid
waste is 7.0 tons/ day of which around 60% waste is collected
and transported. The earlier practice was crude dumping of
the waste in one hectare land owned by the Municipality. In
1998, Municipality decided to process the organic fraction
in the same site to mitigate the environmental problems. A
project for composting the market waste by open pit method
was formulated but the programme had to be discontinued due
to processing difficulties of un-segregated waste, water accumulation
in pits during rains and poor quality of compost. The present
Vermi-composting unit was then set up with the assistance
of Peerumedu Development Society (An NGO experienced in Vermi-composting)
The Plant currently has 15 composting beds (7.5xl.2xO.3 m)
with a roof covering (40x5.7 m shed) to protect the beds from
sun and rain. Bed is prepared by digging 30cm below ground
level and spreading or lining the pit with a layer of coconut
fibre followed by a layer of cow dung slurry Approximately
3000 earthworms (of "eifenia foetida" species and
of average 7 cm size) / pit is spread evenly over this. The
waste is fed to the bed prepared in alternate layers of waste
and cow dung slurry. One pit is enough to accept one ton of
waste/ day for one week. The pits are covered with wet jute
bag (available plenty in waste) to prevent the top layer from
getting dried. After 60 days the matured pits are opened and
there after broken down, sieved manually and worms separated.
The current production of vermin compost is 300 kgs /day and
is sold at Rs.4.50 / kg. Bulk selling above 1000 kgs are at
Rs.4.00/ kg only. Worms are sold at Rs.0.50 / worm.
Though the plant capacity
is 2 tons/day, the current operation is one ton/ day only.
The Municipality is earning about 1.2 lakhs/ anum. The Plant
is managed by Municipal Health department. One lady supervisor
and 3 women workers are engaged. |
