Kochi: Newly appointed Ernakulam District Collector N S K Umesh has promised to bring a long term solution to the waste management woes of the district. The IAS officer took charge as the head of the district administration on Thursday even as the region has been facing a crisis caused by the fire outbreak at the waste management plant at Brahmapuram on the suburbs of the city.

Umesh replaced Dr Renu Raj who had been supervising the massive firefighting exercise at Brahmapuram. Dr Renu Raj was transferred to Wayanad as district collector there in a bureaucratic reshuffle ordered on Wednesday.

Umesh, who was transferred from the post of staff officer to the chief secretary, said Renu Raj had prepared a good action plan to resolve the fire incident and he would continue with that. “Our short-term focus will be to resolve the fire incident. In the long-term, I will study the waste management crisis and implement a programme accordingly,” Umesh said, as he addressed the media after taking charge.

Asked about the people’s outrage against the administration over the fire at the waste treatment plant, the collector said he will work towards building confidence among the people. He called upon the district administration, officials, media and the public to work as a team.

Umesh visited the Brahmapuram plant soon after assuming office.

Attempts have been on to extinguish the fire at Brahmapuram plant for over a week. The fire has been brought under control but the toxic smoke emanating from the site has been troubling the residents of the city and the suburbs. The fire broke out at the plant on Thursday evening.

The Kerala High Court has registered a case suo motu over the incident.

A bench of Justices S V Bhatti and Basant Balaji said the government should strengthen the waste segregation at source and take stringent action against those who dump garbage in public places.

It further said that the entire State should be seen as one city when formulating waste disposal plans and steps should be taken on a war footing to dispose of garbage scientifically.

The bench said that both short and long term plans were needed as solving the current issue would not be a permanent solution to the problem of waste disposal. The court said that there was no need to file a multi-page report and instead the government should just say exactly how it intends to implement the plans.

It also called for a detailed report from the district collector regarding the situation at the waste plant.

The bench also said that the court intervened in the matter as a pollution free environment was a human right and this was being denied to the citizens in many places, including Kochi.

The Kerala government on Wednesday decided that plastic will no longer be taken to the Brahmapuram waste plant.

The decision was taken in an emergency high-level meeting chaired by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the wake of the fire at the plant, the CMO said in a statement.

It was also decided in the meeting, that bio-waste will be disposed of at the source as much as possible and the window composting system for organic waste treatment will be repaired urgently, the statement said.