A group of women from in and around Kuttanad underwent skill development training on making life jackets from plastic rice sacks and plastic bottles recently.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)- India and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment- Community Environment Resource Centre (ATREE-CERC) organised the two-day training workshop at Mankombu in Kuttanad as part of the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge (TTPC) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). TTPC is a global initiative to reduce the use of plastics and avoid pollution, especially in the coastal and marine environment.
As many as 26 women participated in the training programme. It was inaugurated by Fr. Thomas Kulathungal, director, Changanassery Social Service Society.
Fr. Kulathungal said that creating life jackets from plastic rice sacks and water bottles was an innovative mode of reducing and reusing plastic waste which chokes waterbodies in low-lying Kuttanad.
Anuswetha, a 19-year-old entrepreneur from Assam, led the workshop. “The idea of making such a life-saving device came to my mind when I was in ninth standard during our struggles with frequent floods”, Anuswetha says.
After making a life jacket following training, Margaret from Chempumpuram in Nedumudi grama panchayat said “This life jacket seems very useful for ensuring the safety of my three-year-old daughter while she plays in the water.”
WWF and ATREE-CERC officials said that materials for making these life jackets were easily available and at almost zero cost. Jojo T.D., project manager, ATREE-CERC said that more women and youth from the region would be given skill development training.
Apart from imparting training to women, the WWF-India and ATREE-CERC
also organised a Youth Advocacy Workshop on plastics and plastic pollution
at Karmasadan Pastoral Centre, Alappuzha.
Eighty-eight students from 12 colleges across Kerala participated in the workshop, which included multimedia presentations, activities, brainstorming, beach clean-up, exposure visits to Kuttanad, and interactive sessions.
The clean-up on Alappuzha Beach yielded 15 sacks of segregated waste. The collected waste was handed over to Alappuzha municipality for proper disposal. An exposure visit across the Vembanad Lake helped the youth to understand the gravity of plastic pollution that has affected the largest Ramsar site in the country, said A.K. Sivakumar, senior education officer, WWF-India (Kerala).
Neha Sinha, head, Policy and Communications, WWF-India, Tiju C. Thomas, associate coordinator (communities), WWF-India, Sreerag Kuruvat, senior operations manager, Green Worms Waste Management, Kozhikkode and Mr. Jojo spoke at the youth workshop.
