Restoring Kovalam’s Natural Beauty

Our India Team and wonderful interns have recently launched a project to restore Kovalam’s natural beauty with the hopes of creating a clean, healthy environment to boost the local economy.

Our mission is clear: to eliminate waste dumping, enhance waste collection practices, and develop sustainable solutions that benefit both the environment and the local community. We begin with a comprehensive baseline study to identify and address challenges effectively and sustainably.

Through education and awareness initiatives, we aim to highlight the critical impact of waste on both the environment and community health. Additionally, we aim to assist the government’s waste collection staff in improving the efficiency of their work.

By implementing our action plan, we envision a revitalised Kovalam, once again becoming a beautiful and appealing destination for tourists, thereby fostering economic growth within the region.

Interviews and Mapping Waste Dumping Sites

Our team has interviewed 220 local households within the coastal area of Kovalam. By the end of July, we expect to complete all household interviews and move on to other questionnaires for hotels, restaurants, and shop owners.

From the collected responses, we are pleased to see that all questioned households are aware of the local governmental waste management system and the Haritha Karma Sena (HKS), a team of ten women who collect waste.

While nearly all households are registered with the HKS and use their services, issues remain. In some coastal areas, the HKS does not collect waste regularly, and they only take plastic and sometimes other non-biodegradable waste.

Consequently, the community struggles to dispose of their food waste properly. Additionally, around 86% of households admitted to partially burning their waste, and about 4% stated they burn all their waste, including plastics. This highlights ongoing issues with waste management and a knowledge gap regarding the harmful effects of such actions.

The survey has already provided us with in-depth knowledge about the current waste management status and issues. This information will be instrumental in finding solutions to ensure our coastal cleanup efforts are effective and sustainable.

Dumping Sites around Kovalam

We have created a Google MyMap for the Clean Kovalam project. This map includes pictures of initial dump and burning sites and indicates the rough survey area.

We are looking forward to the outcomes of our next surveys and gaining a deeper understanding of how hotels and restaurant owners manage their waste.