Role Of Ulbs Public In Solid Waste

Role Of Ulbs & Public In Solid Waste Management Mrs Almitra H Patel, Member Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management almitrapatel@rediffmail. com

SWM : WHOSE JOB ? ULB? SWM is an obligatory duty for Urban Local Bodies. It is easier to fulfil this with cooperation from the public PUBLIC? SWM is NOT an NGO’s job. Expecting the public or a private agency to do the ULB’s job, even on paymt, is not the answer. MAKE CITIZENS YOUR PARTNERS in SWM

SEGREGATION OF WASTE-1 ULBs must NEVER MIX inert waste (road dust, drain silt, debris) with Garbage (whether segregated or not). IDENTIFY SPACES for useful placement of Inerts. This reduces waste by 40% ! Citizens will not add inerts to a door-todoor collection route. Calcutta charges Rs 10 per handcart for debris clearance from private sites. Run a Hot-line for Rubble Exchange

SEGREGATION OF WASTE-2 Collect Wet and Dry waste separately : Preferably at different times or weekly or in different ways. Encourage Ragpickers to work alongside Safai Karmacharis. Citizens cooperate 60% easily, but lose heart when they see both wastes dumped into same lorry at their doorstep, or unloaded at same disposal point. Encourage waste-buyers by lifting their rejects weekly

DRY WASTE MANAGEMENT SPACES Plan separate destinations for Wet and Dry waste. Provide Sorting Stations in ULB spaces. Provide recycling eqpt at disposal site.

POLICIES for DRY-WASTE USE Shredded plastic film added 8% in bitumen makes wonderful asphalt roads. PWD SPECIFICATIONS MUST BE AMENDED to allow for such use. Weekly School Collection of carrybags, bread wrappers, milk pouches etc has reduced plastic menace in Kodagu Dist. and in Mussoorie. ULB Schools can help. NGOs can help organise it

3 WAYS TO IMPROVE WASTE COLLECTION & TRANSPORT: Nasik, Punjab, Ranchi models Nasik’s “naka” system is cost-effective: trucks halt briefly at road junctions; NO PRIMARY Collection. Citizens bring their home waste-bins directly to the truck and empty them directly into it. City is free of dustbins on roads. Stray animals then are fewer too. Ragpickers in truck collect dry waste for recycling, help reduce waste + make it more suitable for composting

PUNJAB pays communities to manage their own wastes Cities pay Rs 1100 per 200 households for door-to-door collection. City provides trucks for secondary transport from collection points. Park mgt costs are shared, also in Vizag. Residents contribute for additional costs. Permission for Mobile Ads on hand-carts or tricycles encourages sponsors to pay for these. Residents manage Parks from corpus income.

Ranchi allows an NGO to manage a Ward: 5 Wards so far. RMC provided vehicles for Mass Cleanup Drive before starting program. RMC SKs work happily for door-to-door as per NGO’s planning. RMC tractor clears waste. Needs a good strong NGO. NBJK provided 200 man-days to remove 200 t backlog waste in 10 days. Organised Ward into ad-hoc Pocket Devlopment Committees in 2 months for door-to-door on hh contrib’n. Waste sanitising to start soon at collection points, and later decentralised composting.

MERA AANGAN SAAF : My Clean Frontage Towns must pass Rules/ Resolutions requiring ground-floor occupiers to keep their frontages clean upto road centre, esp for commercial areas, incl drain, pavement, road shoulder. Citizens cooperate AFTER Mass Cleanup Drive, with NGO or Trade Association support and monitoring. This helps control hawkerlitter, flooding and footpath encroachments.

CONCENTRATE ON THE DIRTIEST AREAS FIRST ! THREE SUCCESSFUL MODELS for SLUMS: Truck at entrance, All require close ULB interaction with local leaders or councillors. Take-away bins Offer to start wherever full support is promised. Dhaka composting Whistle-system is easiest

TAKE-AWAY BINS, MUMBAI Commitment at top reqd: Appoint OSD Slum Adoption for regular, punctual pickup & rapid response to grievances. Delegate fiscal powers. Start with Mass Cleanup. Local unemployed youth clean drains 7 -8 am, then Place buckets in slum from 8 -10 am for residents’ use. 10 -11 am Empty buckets into lorry, stack all bins. Re 1 per capita per month or max Rs 5/family p. m.

DHAKA NGO buys back compost Perforated drum given to 5 -6 families to share. Only 1 -2” of food wastes to be added in a layer over starter compost at bottom of barrel. NGO buys compost at Rs 2/kg if quality OK. Very popular idea in slums. Many demand lockable lids to keep out misuse by others. Some offer to buy drums on instalments, by payment in kind through compost made

CIVIC WARDENS AID A CITY Bangalore APPOINTS Shuchi Mitras to help monitor performance. Payment for clearance should require local OK ENFORCE built-in contractual penalties. Citizens cooperate where cities are serious about SWM and enforcement. Hyderabad model works well.

START WARD-WISE HAZ-WASTE PICK-UP SCHEMES Street-light Dept to keep tube-lights and bulbs out of city waste. Require take-back policies for oil & aerosol cans, sachets, mini-packs, electronic hardware / parts. See www. rbrc. com on how to organise collection: First-Tuesday pickups of button cells, insulin needles, broken glass, thru NGOs, trade and cultural associations.

MINIMISE AND UTILISE Encourage food banks: Animal-feed exchange, Provide night-shelter or poor-feeding spaces. Send veg-market waste to go-shalas promptly, hotel waste to piggeries. Decentralised composting, Make unused park spaces by buying local composts available to interested citizens for composting. for horticulture dept use, and avoid cowdung use Share transport savings with those who do this. to discourage city stables.

SANITISE SOLID WASTES Pesticides are banned on waste and dustbins ! Use composting biocultures at all waste-collection points: They control odour and hence flies also. Citizens will cooperate in better waste management when their environment improves

MINIMISE SEPTIC-TANK SLUDGES SANITISE LIQUID WASTE TOO Encourage septic-tank treatments for sludge reduction in-situ. Make septic-tank inoculants available to public at Ward Offices. Treat septic tanks, sumps and drains for mosquito control with public help, avoiding DDT and Pesticides. Also bio-larvicides like Bti and lebestes fish as at Nagpur, or vent-pipe Net covers as in Pune.

STABILISE ALL WASTES Unload waste in wind rows at disposal sites. Inoculate with cow-dung water 5% or biocultures. Minimise inerts and plastics to auction waste. Promote Urban Agricult on vacant sites, or tax rebates for fencing. Invite and accept public suggestions for improvement and for eco. Friendly land use and SWM Policies. Make the public your PARTNER for a Clean City.