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Manipur NGO grabs �Green Globe� award

By Sobhapati Samom

IMPHAL, Feb 7 � Manipur- based Centre for Research on Environmental Development (CRED), an NGO, has been awarded the Green Globe Foundation award 2012 for outstanding contribution at the grass root level critical issues of environment degradation besides generating mass awareness on pollution related issues.

The award was handed over to the representatives of the CRED at an award distribution ceremony at Taj Palace in New Delhi on February 2.

Hollywood superstar and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger visited India to attend the Awards ceremony and 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.

It was during their University days, Taorem Leikhendra, Longjam Hemchandra and Pheiroijam Aryabarta joined hands to do something to control environmental pollution in the State and formed CRED.

The organisation began to involve in Manipur�s solid waste management programme by serving more than 5,000 households of Imphal when the Imphal Municipal Council initiated a privatisation programme on solid waste management in 2004.

�Since then, we have been collecting around 47 lakh tonnes of the solid waste from households under 11 municipal wards of Imphal town,� said Taorem Leikhendra, secretary of CRED. �We are charging Rs 50 per household for the service�, he added.

In the initial stages, the CRED collected solid wastes using cycle rickshaws having different chambers for bio-degradable and non-biodegradable waste and make vermicompose for the needy farmers and gardeners. �But due to lack of fund we could not continue it,� Leikhendra added.

�We even thought of transforming the discarded food into garden soil or vermi-compost. But due to lack of awareness among the public, it is hard to collect bio-degradable or non-biodegradable waste separately.�

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