The Hindu                    03.04.2013

Garbage transporters sneakily leave behind big clumps: study

 

A considerable quantity of garbage collected from
locality mushrooms in the same area instead of being transported to the
designated landfills, reveals a report of a pilot project carried out by
a private data solutions company to assist the Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in addressing issues related to garbage at the
Konena Agrahara ward.

The project outcome was
submitted to a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising
Justice N. Kumar and Justice B.V. Nagarathna on Tuesday during the
hearing of public interest litigation (PIL) petitions on Bangalore’s
garbage problems.

Navigem Data Pvt. Ltd., which did
the pilot project free of cost for the BBMP as part of the company’s
corporate social responsibility (CSR) after the BBMP accepted its
proposal to carry out the study, pointed out in its report that garbage
‘mushrooms’ are coming up near electrical transformers and vacant sites,
where the transporters are unofficially dumping portions of the garbage
they are supposed to lift.

In Konena Agrahara, the
report pointed out, the approximate accumulation of garbage in the form
of mushrooms could be around 500 metric tonnes and these could be lying
there for months or years. The report has identified at least 52
mushrooms in Konena Agrahara lying there for months and even years. The
report points out that it is a huge quantum of garbage accumulation
compared to daily collection of around 16 to 19 tonnes per day in the
ward.

When contacted, Madhu Kongovi, chief executive officer, Navigem, told
The Hindu
the mushrooms have cropped up as the transporters are trying to “sweep
the garbage under the carpet”, while trying to keep the official pickup
and satellite points clean.

This, he said, was because they are not equipped to transport entire the quantity of collected garbage to landfills in one go.

“What
we observed was that people don’t start dumping trash in vacant sites
by themselves. But when they see an existing waste pileup they don’t
think twice about adding to it. This is how garbage mushrooms are born.
With time, these mushrooms get only bigger,” he pointed out.

Waste segregation

Mr.
Kongovi, however, said that mushrooming should end once the segregation
at source and waste collection from bulk generators are streamlined as
it reduces nearly 50 per cent of the total garbage to be transported to
landfills.

“Seventy per cent of mushrooms are on vacant sites and around transformers,” the report pointed out.

He
said that a team of eight persons kept a close watch on garbage,
generation, collection and transportation for about eight weeks,
collected necessary data and analysed them using mathematical and
statistical data analysis tools.

The report also
disclosed that only 10 per cent of the ward segregates the waste and
door-to-door collection is only to the extent of 58 per cent.

Suggested solutions

In
its recommendations, the report stated that hoardings and posters,
debris and dig-ups created by BWSSB and Bescom, debris of trees pruned
by Bescom and dumping of illegal construction materials had to be
regulated. It also recommended working of garbage collectors and
cleaners in two shifts — 6.30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
instead of the present 6.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.