Solid Waste Management

BMC 'sweeps' garbage under carpet

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 12:20 administrator

The Times of India 07.08.2013

BMC 'sweeps' garbage under carpet

BHUBANESWAR: Green city, clean city. Though Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) went an extra mile in spreading the message on giant posters with the image of a smiling Naveen Patnaik at different locations in the city, it is drawing flak for having failed to make any tangible effort to flush out garbage from roads.

Introduction of mechanized sweeping machines and launch of 'clean city campaign' and 'mobile governance' projects, which were aimed at addressing the waste woes of the capital, have come a cropper.

"Even as garbage continues to rob sheen of the city, the civic body boasts of making strides with 'progress through partnerships' in different fields. The BMC's whooping Rs 1.65 crore mobile governance project has turned out to be a white elephant," said Piyush Ranjan Rout, an urban planner.

Though the hi-tech project was launched about a year ago to keep an eye on 'truant' sanitation workers, heaps of garbage remain dumped at major places. A private firm was engaged to click photographs to keep track of workers, shirking their duties. The BMC's standing committee on public health and sanitation recently opposed the project and demanded that it be scrapped for alleged poor show.

The BMC authorities said the mobile governance system has proved its worth. "Cellphones are capturing real-time images of workers at garbage transfer units. It has improved the attendance of sweepers," BMC commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said.

Citizens said instead of installing the expensive technology, BMC should expedite construction of the solid waste treatment plant at Bhuasuni, on the outskirts of the city. "The project has been hanging fire since long. Garbage is being dumped near Sainik School and other places illegally. There is no mechanism to segregate the waste," said Sidhharth Das, a city-based lawyer.

Mishra said the corporation would shortly float tenders for setting up the waste processing plant at an estimated cost of Rs 46 crore. "Once commissioned, we can produce refuse derived fuel out of waste," he said. The city generates 450 metric tonnes of waste every day.

All eyes are now on the BMC for effective utilization of Rs 45 crore, earmarked for sanitation in this year's budget. Last year, the allocation was Rs 26 crore and the civic body claimed that it had spent all the money. "We have divided 53 wards into four zones for better solid waste management. The extra funds will be used for transporting waste dumped at the transit yard near Sainik School to Bhuasuni and privatization of street sweeping," Mishra said. Out of the 60 wards, 53 are under private sanitation contractors which the BMC staff takes care of the rest seven.

Waste management: Key role for local bodies

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 09:48 administrator

The New Indian Express 07.08.2013

The state government is planning to hand over to local bodies, the lead role in the implementation of the waste management projects. Going back from an earlier decision, the Urban Affairs Dept says they will now act only as a facilitator. The Suchitwa Mission will continue to provide technical assistance for such projects.

Consequently, the responsibility of managing the seven state-of-the-art waste management plants, proposed by the government a year ago, in the five Corporations will rest with the respective local bodies.

M Dileep Kumar, Suchitwa Mission Executive Director said: “We are awaiting a policy decision on this matter. The government will only take a final decision after deliberations. The proposed projects in various cities will not be implemented directly by the state government and instead the respective local bodies will be entrusted with the lead role.”

He further said that although the role of the state government will be curtailed, it may still play a major part in the tendering process and while deciding on the mode of implementation.

“In view of a change in policy, the tendering process in Kannur and Ernakulam was cancelled a couple of months back,” Dileep Kumar said.

Sources said the government was forced to think of a policy shift following certain issues related with the proposed waste management plant at Chalai in Thiruvanthapuram.

With the mandate shifting to the shoulder of local bodies, they may have to commit buying electricity or other products manufactured by these waste plants, which will be set up in the PPP model.

Taking a jibe at the government, Kozhikode Mayor A K Premajam said: “More than a year ago government informed that it would implement a waste management project in Kozhikode. But nothing has taken place so far. Any way we will welcome any move to hand over the responsibility of implementation of treatment plants to local bodies”.

Kudumbasree workers caught in plastic conundrum

Tuesday, 06 August 2013 04:52 administrator

The Hindu 06.08.2013

Kudumbasree workers caught in plastic conundrum

EYESORE: Plastic waste heaped on the premises of a plastic recycling unit at West Hill in Kozhikode.— Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

For Kudumbasree sanitation workers in the city, plastic waste has always been a problem of sorts, right from whether it should be collected along with other waste to what should be done once it is collected.

The opening of a plastic-waste-processing unit at West Hill by the city Corporation in March this year was expected to put to rest these issues, but questions still remain.

The Kudumbasree workers used to collect plastic waste till about two years ago. They were instructed to stop it when the civic body started thinking of waste segregation. This continued until the opening of the plastic processing plant four months ago. But within a month, problems began to crop up as the workers were expected to deliver ‘clean’ plastic waste. The workers are supposed to be paid Rs.4 for every kg of plastic waste they deliver at the plant.

During the opening of the plant, Mayor A.K. Premajam had said that only clean plastic would be recycled in the plant.

She urged the people to adopt the practice of proper segregation of waste in households. Kudumbasree workers were asked not to collect plastic bags or waste soiled with remains of food or other items.

“We had told people to give us only clean plastic waste. But this did not have any effect, and most of the time we ended up cleaning it ourselves. The waste is not segregated also. The segregation and the cleaning started taking up more time than the actual waste collection. The plastic that we get is soiled badly with food waste of many days,” says P.T. Girija, one of the workers.

The lack of facilities for cleaning and drying in many of the areas aggravated the problem. With the onset of the monsoon, drying was out of the question.

“The plant authorities refuse to accept plastic waste that is not cleaned and dried. How are we supposed to dry it during such incessant rain?” asks Malar, a Kudumbasree worker.

Even though the plastic collection from Kudumbasree has come down, the pile at the plant in West Hill remains big.

The five workers at the plant say that they work non-stop to clear the mounting waste. The amount of rejects (plastic that cannot be processed) is high, as is evident from the huge piles gathered at the Corporation’s plot adjacent to the plant.

“Most of the rejects are of low-quality plastic that crumbles if processed. Also, wet or unclean plastic cannot be processed,” says one of the workers.

When contacted by The Hindu , Janamma Kunjunni, chairperson of the Corporation’s standing committee on health, blamed the Kudumbasree workers for the state of affairs at the plant.

“There is no facility to segregate waste at the plant. Only processing is done there.

“The Kudumbasree workers sometimes throw all the waste without segregation. So the amount of rejects is high,” says Ms. Kunjunni.

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