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Cities at crossroads: Small town, cleaner future
Why in news?
- Small and mid-size cities and towns of India are showing the way on how to manage solid waste by getting communities to segregate waste and keeping the waste streams separate.
Case studies
Suryapet:
- A single individual, S A Khadar, the commissioner of Suryapet, Telangana municipal corporation, demonstrated personal leadership which made a big difference.
- He managed all the Suryapet’s wet and dry waste (32 tonnes daily at that time) on a half-acre site within the city, earning a gross income of Rs 1 lakh per month.
- He wooed the residents, one mohalla or street or commercial area at a time, by organising daily meetings on morning rounds from six to nine am before beginning his office work.
Mechanism:
- Open drain cleaning was done in the afternoons. Soggy silt went directly into a wheelie-bin and then into a dedicated leak-proof collection vehicle which unloaded the silt and the debris for widening the road shoulders of all radial roads.
Karjat:
- Kokare commissioner of the municipal council of Karjat, strictly enforced Maharashtra’s ban on plastic carry bags.
- These are now replaced by sari-cloth bags which cost Rs 6 per bag.
- Handcart vendors use bags made out of newspapers.
- He persuaded residents, to cooperate in giving 36 kinds of waste separately on different days of the week! This is probably a global first.
Lessons for metro cities:
- Big cities scoff at small towns leading the way and claim that their own waste volumes are unmanageable.
- But even in large metropolitan cities, populations of most wards are smaller than of these towns.
- Decentralization and effective use of delegated power at the ward level is crucial if micro-planning and implementation is to work with cooperation from RWAs.
- Then can we find a collective solution to the challenges of solid waste management in our larger cities.
Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016
Where these are applicable?
- Beyond Municipal areas and extend to urban agglomerations,
- Census towns, notified industrial townships,
- Areas under the control of Indian Railways, airports, airbase, Port and harbour, defence establishments,
- Special economic zones, State and Central government organizations,
- Places of pilgrims, religious & historical importance.
- segregate waste into three streams:(1) Wet (Biodegradable),(2) Dry (Plastic, Paper, metal, wood, etc.)(3) Domestic hazardous wastes (diapers, napkins, empty containers of cleaning agents, mosquito repellents, etc.).
Source
Indian express.