‘Kochi has failed to recognise waste treatment as a business opportunity’

Kochi Corporation has failed to recognise waste treatment as a business opportunity. Indore has shown how to manage waste effectively. Keralites have high levels of education and civic engagement, yet lack effective urban governance. ULBs need to tap into alternative sources of revenue and digitise local-level data. Political formations in Kerala are not devolving powers to ULBs. CPPR has launched an urban fellowship to understand urban policies and evaluate public policies.

The Kochi Corporation has failed to recognise waste treatment as a business opportunity. It must take a cue from cities like Indore on waste management, former Union Urban Development Secretary M. Ramachandran said here on Saturday.

As producers of waste, people ought to know what happens to it and where it ends up. Cities like Indore see waste treatment as a business opportunity, he said while speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Urbanisation in Kerala: How is the State evolving and what are the challenges’, organise by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).

Referring to high levels of education and civic engagement of most Keralites, Mr. Ramachandran expressed concern at the State still not establishing itself as a frontrunner in providing effective urban governance to its citizens. “We still have not figured out what to do with waste generated in Kochi city, despite all the discussions that have been taking place. The lack of revenue-generation alternatives for urban local bodies (ULBs) in Kerala is the reason for their inability to leverage their local services. They must tap into alternative sources of revenue generation, from waste management, advertising, and parking policies, leveraging their financial autonomy,” he said.

“A new model of citizen participation is necessary in Kerala since most citizens do not participate in existing models like ward-level meetings. Lack of digitisation of local-level data has made urban service delivery a hassle. For instance, there is lack of data generation when Kochi gets flooded. Each ULB should have a dedicated team of professionals to tackle issues like waste, flooding, and transport,” he said.

In his address, former Mayor K.J. Sohan expressed dismay at the State government not devolving adequate powers, including aspects like water and power supply to ULBs, despite a constitutional amendment in this regard. No political formation that comes to power in Kerala wants to devolve these functions to ULBs, with the result that multiple agencies have to be tasked with it.

Vineetha Hariharan, expert in public policy, and D. Dhanuraj, chairman, CPPR, were among those who spoke.

The CPPR has launched an urban fellowship with the support of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom South Asia in March 2023 to familiarise select fellows with various aspects of urban policies and to develop an understanding of key techniques that are necessary to critically evaluate public policies in cities.