Food waste piles up in Vandiyur tank in Madurai

MADURAI: When the Madurai corporation brought water to the Vandiyur Mariamman temple tank from Vaigai river through Pannaiyur channel in 2019, it brought much joy to the residents. The tank has since been a place to hang out for them as it is always seen brimming with water. However, four years on, the scene has changed and residents throw waste mindlessly into the tank after buying food from street vendors nearby.

Ensuring cleanliness at the teppakulam tank has become a tough job for sanitary workers despite many dumper bins being kept by the corporation around the temple. Residents throw plastic bags, cups and plates into the tank's inner kerb wall and inside the water. After the Covid restrictions were lifted, eateries around the tank had become a major attraction with many families seen nibbling and chatting around it in the evenings. The corporation has streamlined parking and street vendors operating in the street, but cleanliness remains a challenging problem.

More than 80 street vendors on a two-kilometre stretch around the tank are registered with the corporation, says M Selvam, member of the town vending committee. However, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment department has given the contract for maintenance of the temple to a private agency which collects rent from vendors who set up shops in the area. Corporation officials have instructed the contractor and street vendors to keep a dustbin at every shop apart from the corporation dumper bins. A sanitary inspector said the vendors are penalised if they don't have dustbins while a fine amount of '50 is collected from residents if they are seen throwing food waste.

Mugesh Sharma, zonal chairperson of Madurai south, said that penalising residents can't be a solution. "Instead we can fence the outer walls on which residents sit and eat," he said. However, K P Bharathi, coordinator of tourism for development of DHAN foundation, is against fencing. "The entire beauty of the 400-year-old tank will be spoiled if the tank is fenced, and it will also be a disturbance during the float festival in the tank. Instead, the residents must be made aware of the tank ecosystem and cleanliness," he said.

Bharathi said the corporation can employ a person at the tank to announce through a mic about cleanliness at least during rush hour in the evenings and weekends. V K Murugan, contractor of the temple land around the tank, said he recently employed one such person during weekends to instruct about cleanliness after many residents approached him for better waste disposal management.