Waste Management need behavioral change

Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Even after 70 years of independence from British Raj , sanitation and open defecation is still seen as a big challenge in India. This is a not only a challenge for India but for most of the south Asian countries as well. With an aim of creating a pan India sanitation movement ,Government of India  on October 2nd 2014 launched a programme called Clean India Mission commonly known as Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (SBA).  In-fact before 2014 Congress led Government had also launched a scheme called Total Sanitation Campaign and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan to curb open defecation and issues related to sanitation, but the budgetary allocation to these programme was less as compared to Swachh Bharat Mission (SBA). Many top Bollywood stars and sports personalities including Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Vidya Balan , Shah Rukh Khan and several other personalities where selected as Public figures by Indian Prime Minister for propagation of this campaign. After launching SBA in 2014, Government of India every year awards title of Swachh City (Clean City) award to the cleanest city / town in India. A countrywide survey called SwachhSurvekeshan(Cleanliness Survey) is undertaken in this regard. From last few years this survey has generated a great enthusiasm among people and cities are now competing with each other to grab the title of cleanest city. In-fact inter ward competitions for sanitation / cleanliness are also held now in several Indian cities and towns.
Cleanliness Survey
On 4 May 2017, Ministry of Urban Development Government of India released a list of cleanest cities which was finalized by the Quality Council of India. Indore a city located in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (MP) was declared as cleanest city in India and Gonda in Uttar Pradesh (UP) the filthiest. Out of 10 cleanest cities in 2017 survey two are from Madhya Pradesh (Indore and Bhopal). Out of 10 filthiest cities, Uttar Pradesh (UP) had five cities, two each were from Bihar and Punjab, and one from Maharashtra. 118 out of 500 cities were found to be Open Defecation Free (ODF). 297 cities had facilities of 100 percent door to door collection of garbage. 37 lakh citizens across India showed interest in the survey (SwachhSurveksan) 2017. There were 404 cities in which at least 75 percent of residential areas were found substantially clean. Gujarat had 12 cities among the top 50 cleanest, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 11 and Andhra Pradesh with eight. Four of the dirtiest cities were in Uttar Pradesh and 50 of the state’s towns were ranked 305 and below. In the 2018 survey once again Indore has been declared as cleanest city in India..
Indore, cleanest city in India
Last year I once again happened to visit Indore along with a team of officers from Jammu and  Kashmir Government. The aim of this visit was to see the best practices being adopted by Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and to replicate them in Srinagar and Jammu cities. Officials from J&K Government met with Mayor of IMC and top officials of the local Municipal Corporation. They visited residential areas to see how collection and segregation of waste was being undertaken.During the visit I along with some friends happened to visit Indore’s famous food street at  Sarafa Bazar at midnight on November 20th.  I thought this food street would be full of trash , plastic bottles , disposable plates etc. I was completely astonished to see such a neat and clean food street. I started taking pictures from my cell phone. I had never ever seen such a clean food street in India at least. Sarafa Bazar is actually a gold market that gets closed by 8 to 9 pm everyday and after 9 pm, it turns into a food street until 2 am. The street is full of life , hustle and bustle throughout the night  In March 2016 I had been to this place, but it was not at all clean. Within 15 to 18  months Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has revolutionized its sanitation system and change is quite visible. Above all the behavioral changes are quite visible among shopkeepers , restaurant owners , tea stalls , dhabawalas and people in general. People who are very much part of this change and are fully cooperating with the municipality . People of Indore got a moral boost when Indore city was declared India’s  cleanest city during 2017 SwachhSurvekeshan (Cleanliness Survey). I could observe people of Indore now want to protect this honour and that is why they leave no stone unturned to ensure Indore is again declared Indian’s cleanest city in 2018 for which survey will start from January 1st  2018 onwards.
Indore city which has a population of more than 2 million people generates nearly 50,000 Kgs of municipal solid waste every day. Out of this  13,000 Kgs is plastic waste. Plastic which is non-biodegradable in nature is difficult to recycle as well. Until a year back,  the city used to dispose off 80 percent of the plastic waste by burning it which lead to huge amount of pollution. Only 10 to 20  percent used to be recycled after being segregated by Rag pickers. Only a year back Indore was almost choking in smog caused due to the burning of such large amounts of non bio degradable waste especially plastic. In January 2017 Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) set up a Plastic Collection Centre (PCC) to reuse and recycle the city’s plastic waste. A private Social Enterprise BASIX is running this center by recycling the plastic into various useful items. Polythene cakes are made under high temperature  in a Gutta machine and these cakes are used to make agriculture pipes or plastic ropes etc. As burning of plastic has almost declined,  the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) in April 2017 declared that the pollution levels in Indore  had drastically fallen from 140 microgram per cubic-metre to 80 microgram per cubic-metre just within 4 months, which is much closer to the safety limit of 60 microgram / cubic metre as prescribed by New Delhi based Central Pollution Control Board. As for as Bio Degradable waste is concerned , Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) with the help BASIX and some more NGOs is undertaking door to door collection of waste in a segregated manner. All the households, shops , restaurants etc have been given two trash bins wherein segregated waste is separately dumped in the bins. This segregated waste is then carried to scientific landfill site by specially designed vehicles which have two partitions on regular basis . The bio degradable waste is processed and compost is made out of it. I myself visited the landfill site and found heaps of organic compost which is sold to local farmers.
Indore  to Kashmir
I have been writing on environmental issues from last several years. In October 2015 I met the Founder of BASIX Social Enterprise Group Mr Vijay Mahajan in New Delhi at a climate change conference. Mr Mahajan who is IIT Delhi , IIM Ahmedabad alumnushas been working in development sector like Micro Finance , Financial Inclusion, Skills , Energy , Waste Management  from last more than two decades in India and few other developing countries. Presently  Mahajan is CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. During my discussion with  Mahajan , I requested him to help Kashmiris in the waste management sector. Within a few months a team of around five Kashmiri boys were recruited by BASIX. They were deputed to Indore in February 2016 and during this time I also visited Indore. It was during that time when door to door collection and Information Education & Communication (IEC) work had started  under the guidance of zestful and  energetic  Commissioner of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) Manish Singh. After being trained in Indore, the team of Kashmiri boys came to Srinagar. Along with Vijay Mahajan and present group CEO of  BASIX D Sattaiah , we  had a detailed meeting with the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in May 2016. CM Mehbooba seemed very much optimistic about our plans and asked BASIX to work in few wards of Srinagar city (on voluntary basis) for some months. This could not materialize due to lack of support from Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC). Finally BASIX started its pilot work in a small town of Budgam located in the Srinagar outskirts. The Municipal Committee Budgam provided us logistical support and manpower.It was during 2016 summer unrest in Kashmir valley when we to set up a compost plant in Budgam town. By November 2016 we began motivating people to start segregating the waste. Executive Officers Mushtaq Ahmad, Nayeem Rizvi, staff of MC Budgam,  community leaders helped us a lot. Within a month in cold winter days our volunteers began door to door collection of garbage in a segregated manner . It was a joint work of municipal staff and volunteers from Basix. An NGO namely Arasta Foundation provided us more than 700 trash-bins. Within 4 months we were able to ensure 70 to 80 percent waste was collected in a segregated manner from five municipal wards of the town. Earlier due to lack of such mechanism people in 5 wards of Budgam used dump waste  in open plots or thrown on roadsides, it was only twice or once in a week when municipal vehicle would come and take away the garbage. The segregated organic / kitchen waste was taken to compost unit and was processed there. Within few months we got a high quality compost. The sample was tested at Government Horticulture Laboratory in Srinagar and results were beyond our expectations. The plastic and Non Bio Degradable waste was sent to local landfill site as the plastic waste processing unit is yet to be set up. People especially women and municipal staff (sweepers) appreciated the work.
After  three months the pilot work ended. It took another two months to restart the work and segregation level came down to zero  percent. By March 2017 , we again started 2nd pilot work and within two months we could ensure 70 to 80 percent people were segregating the waste. The 2nd pilot project ended in June 2017.  The full fledged work is yet to begin as there are some logistical issues with the local municipality like dearth of vehicles etc. We hope we will be allotted this work for full year term so that we can show much better results. Infact through tender process we have already qualified , but even after qualifying the same , the work hasn’t been allotted. We had a meeting with Advisor to Governor B B Vyas in this regard who assured us that work will be again taken up soon.
After success in Budgam  pilot work, Government should have expanded this work to other towns and cities of  Jammu and Kashmir state, but this has not been done. I believe waste management is a skill which has a future and our educated young men and women must take up this as a profession. They would face challenges initially but after few years this sector will thrive across not only in J&K but in all other states as well. If Municipalities and Government authorities spend billions on infrastructure development, construction and civil works , I believe large amount of budget should be allocated for waste management as well. Managing waste is a behavioral change. To create this behavioral change Government and NGOs haveto focus on Information Education & Communication (IEC) work by involving Religious leaders , educational institutions and women. IEC work should be followed by collection of waste and its processing as well.
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