Project to turn Dimapur’s ‘garbage to gold’ takes flight

[caption id="attachment_160477" align="aligncenter" width="565"] Members of Pro Rural with the residents of River Belt Colony and DMC officials at the launching of Project Garbage to Gold on January 20. (EM Images)[/caption] Dimapur, Jan. 20 (EMN): A Dimapur-based non-governmental organisation Pro Rural has launched a sanitation campaign dubbed “Project garbage to gold” on January 20 at River Belt Colony in Dimapur. The colony was awarded as winner of the ‘Cleanest colony competition’ in 2017. The campaign was held in collaboration with the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC). DMC is in an endeavour to make Dimapur municipal area a ‘dustbin free zone’ by 2018. The initiative is in line with the announcement by the DMC’s administrator Moa Sangtam on December 4, 2017, during the advent Christmas celebration that the municipal would be launching a project to convert household and kitchen waste into manure from January 2018. Members of Pro Rural explained that to turn ‘garbage into a useful product,’ biodegradable waste must be separated in containers provided by the DMC and Pro Rural, ‘sprinkle the powder provided and cover the container with a plank of wood to help retain moisture and heat.’ The water from the waster accumulated in the container can be used for watering plants, cleaning drains and kitchen sink etc. The waste then can be used as garden manure, it advised. DMC had started a project called ‘A Better Dimapur’ on the theme ‘Cleaner, greener and healthy’ Dimapur with community participation. Civic groups namely Team Green of Dimapur, Team Clean of Dimapur, Act of Kindness Movement, Dismantling Team, and the establishment of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dimapur and a core team for the ‘Better Dimapur’ project. Another event was the ‘cleanest colony competition’ in 2017, which started in July 2017 and judged by five judges. River Belt colony (ward-11) was ranked first; Kevijau colony (ward-16) in second position; Lengrijan colony (ward-12) in third position; Island colony (ward-10) in fourth position; and Niu colony (ward-22) in the fifth position respectively. The second phase of ‘Better Dimapur’ commenced from January 2018 with community participation as its main motivational component. At the launch of Project Garbage to Gold at River Belt colony’s community hall, 50 materials for household waste composting were distributed.