As garbage piles up, Kadambathur residents fear disease outbreak

S Munikumar (50), a social activist and a resident of Vengathur Kandigai that comes under Kadambathur Panchayat Union told DT Next, everyone in the locality fear that diseases may spread due to drainage overflow and dumped garbage. “With more fever cases being reported in our district, we are really worried. We are suffering from this garbage problem for the past over twenty years,” he said. 

Block Development Officer (BDO) for the Kadambathur area A Santhanam admitted that civic problems of this kind were present in small numbers across the panchayat union. He added that lack of manpower and availability of necessary equipment were an issue. 

“We have planned to arrange a meeting with the public as soon as possible to bring awareness on garbage being dumped into the vacant lands by the locals. For 150 houses, a sanitary worker has been allotted to clean the garbage. A total of 150 sanitary workers have been engaged in the work. They have been hired under the MNREGA scheme,” Santhanam said. 

He added that local bodies did not have sufficient funds to provide upgraded technology to panchayat unions. “The garbage collecting centres have not been provided dump yards by panchayat unions. The garbage generated by the panchayat unions are only shifted to another place but not cleared,” Santhanam said. 

The BDO assured that the measures were taken solve civic problems across their jurisdiction. The Kadambathur panchayat union has 43 villages in its fold.