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Solid Waste Management

‘Let each ward manage their waste at the local level’

Monday, 07 October 2013 04:52 administrator
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The Hindu              07.10.2013

‘Let each ward manage their waste at the local level’

Krishnaprasad

Suggestions of expert group on SWM is now before High Court

What are the strategies and methods that the city needs to adopt to liberate itself from being labelled “garbage city?”

An expert committee, constituted by the State last year suggested answers to this question in its report - titled “A future with no landfills.”

It recommends moving towards zero-waste systems through multiple approaches, including processing municipal solid waste (MSW) through composting or biogas (not incineration), recycling, re-use of recyclables, etc.

Quoting SAARC’s “Dhaka Declaration 2004 on Waste Management”, the report states that open dumping should be stopped immediately, incineration technologies should not be used, and community-based waste segregation at source should be adopted.

A Division Bench of the High Court, which is monitoring measures taken to solve garbage crisis through public interest litigation (PIL) petitions, will soon go through the committee’s recommendations before giving specific directions to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahangara Palike (BBMP) on future MSW management. The committee includes among others Almitra H. Patel, whose PIL plea in the apex court resulted in Municipal Waste Management Rules, 2000, the country’s first rule in MSW area, and seven other experts.

One of the main suggestions is that all domestic waste generated from each ward of the BBMP should be processed and managed within the boundaries of the respective ward. This is to keep citizen responsibilities at the local level strong, besides making the process cost-effective.

This suggestion has already been taken note of by the court. In its recent hearing, it had asked the BBMP Commissioner to look out for sufficient space on the lines of dry waste collection centres in each ward. The committee also suggested that no garbage contractor should service more than 5 to 6 wards and should not service the same area for more than one tender period. It has also suggested that the existing tipping-fee concept for transporting waste should be replaced by a support price to the compost (or processed end-product), similar to the payment made to the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation.

The BBMP, should directly service at least 40 per cent of the city through its pourakarmikas, and these wards should be identified separately, should not be mixed with those under private contractors, so that comparative performance can be assessed.

The report also recommends that the BBMP should unload daily wet waste and mixed waste separately as per MSW Rules. And night unloading must be phased out at the earliest, so that wastes do not rot within the vehicle (from morning to night) and become hard to compost after unloading.

 

AMC to charge for handling solid waste

Friday, 27 September 2013 07:08 administrator
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The Times of India             27.09.2013

AMC to charge for handling solid waste

AURANGABAD: The civic body on Thursday passed a resolution to charge a fee from all residential, commercial and institutional properties for handling solid waste.

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will now collect 50 paise per day from flats or bungalows and 25 paise from slum dwellers.

The administration has proposed eight different categories of properties for the charges to be collected. All residential properties such as flats, bungalows and huts are placed in the first category. Commercial properties like hotels (big, small and medium), function halls, cinema halls, vegetable markets, schools and colleges, governmental offices, etc., are placed in second category, while hospitals and pathology labs are placed in third and fourth categories respectively. Nursing homes, industrial units, others non-residential properties and temporary structures for exhibitions, etc., have also been placed in different categories.

Commenting on the project, deputy municipal commissioner Ravindra Nikam said the civic body might start collecting the charges in the next 30 or 40 days. "Previously, we had planned to implement the project through the public private partnership (PPP) model, but it was not approved by the general body," he said. He said the proposal was now passed as it was made mandatory by the state government. "The general body has passed it today and the municipal commissioner will take a final call on the execution of the plan," he said.

The civic body has planned to collect Rs 200 daily from big hotels, Rs 100 from the mid-sized and Rs 25 from the small ones. Halls, cinema theatres and lawns will be charged Rs 100 per day.

Weekly markets and private vegetable markets will be charged Rs 500 per day for taking care of the solid waste generated by them. Vendors will have to pay Re 1 per day. In case of schools and colleges, a charge of Rs 10 per day has been proposed and the vendors will have to pay Re 1 per day. For hospitals and pathology labs, the municipal corporation proposed Rs 15 per day. The industrial units will have to pay Rs 600 per day and the slaughter houses will be chared Rs 1000 per day.

At present, civic employees, along with members of some self-help groups (SHGs), collect garbage from various collection points and dump it at the Naregaon dumping yard without collecting any charges from the citizens. It is important to note that the city has more than 1,62,000 properties, including 183 big hotels, 135 mid-size hotels and 376 small hotels. The number of hospitals and pathology labs in the city is 577 and 56 respectively.

 

Now, civic body to lift garbage six times daily

Friday, 27 September 2013 06:22 administrator
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The Times of India             27.09.2013

Now, civic body to lift garbage six times daily

PATNA: As the Durga Puja organizers have started working overtime to get pandals ready on time, so is the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to keep the city clean before the festival begins.

The PMC officials, at a meeting on Thursday, decided to intensify garbage lifting and cleaning works across the city. "Garbage is collected thrice on tractors from different areas daily. But owing to Durga Puja, we have decided to make it six times a day," said additional commissioner (in charge revenue and sanitation), PMC, Shashank Shekhar Sinha.

"The sanitary inspectors have been ordered to identify all garbage dumping spots, even the bylanes, in their areas. We would also deploy dedicated workers near each pandal," Sinha said.

The corporation has also planned to circulate CDs with appeal to the Puja samitis to keep their surroundings clean and keep dustbin both outside and inside their pandals. The PMC has started training its staff in handling handheld fogging machines to be used in the city soon. It has purchased 59 portable fogging machines to rid the city of mosquito menace.

On Thursday, the New Capital Circle (NCC) that has received 24 fogging machines out of the 59, imparted training to its staff in operating them. The PMC aims to cover 28 wards under the NCC in three days. To ensure that fogging is done without any negligence, the staff responsible for it has to get a written certificate from the ward councillor concerned and a reputed person of the ward. Once the fogging is done for the day, the staff concerned will submit the machines to their respective circle offices, Sinha said.

The PMC has spent Rs 20 lakh on purchasing the 59 machines.

 
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