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Solid Waste Management

Demand for metro status when city can’t manage its waste

Friday, 19 April 2013 06:13 administrator
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The Hindu                19.04.2013

Demand for metro status when city can’t manage its waste

Garbage scattered around a pedestrian path at Gandhinagar, Kadavanthra.— Photo:H.Vibhu
Garbage scattered around a pedestrian path at Gandhinagar, Kadavanthra.— Photo:H.Vibhu

The city’s claim for metropolitan status comes at a time when nearly 10 local bodies, including the Kochi Corporation, have failed to evolve even a basic plan for collection, segregation, transportation and disposal of municipal waste.

The heaps of waste piled up on the city roads and its outskirts raise the question of how Kochi could attain the Metro status without addressing the key issue of solid waste management.

Besides Kochi Corporation, the local bodies that have failed to evolve a scientific plan for collection and disposal of waste include Aluva, Perumbavoor, North Paravur, Tripunithura, Angamaly, Kothamangalam, Kalamassery, Maradu and Thrikkakara municipalities.

Interestingly, the corporation and the municipalities are yet to renew the authorisation under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, for collection, segregation, transportation and disposal of municipal waste.

This renders waste management systems followed by all these local bodies illegal and in violation of existing rules.

According to the Municipal Solid Waste Rules, the municipal authority or an operator of a facility shall make an application in Form-I for grant of authorisation for setting up waste processing and disposal facility, including landfills, from the State Pollution Control Board. The validity of the authorisation is five years.

The solid waste management issue is expected to turn worse, with the commissioning of mega projects like SmartCity.

Even though the promoters of the project have come up with a master plan, there is still no clarity on the solid waste management plan in the township that is expected to generate close to one lakh jobs.

The State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) had recently suggested that SmartCity authorities should develop an efficient solid waste management system of their own, as the project is considered as a mega dream initiative of the State.

 

Rs. 70-cr. project for safe disposal of solid waste

Thursday, 18 April 2013 06:21 administrator
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The Hindu                       18.04.2013

Rs. 70-cr. project for safe disposal of solid waste

Staff Reporter

The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to recycle and safely dispose of the huge stock of solid waste dumped near Chandania hill on the outskirts of the city.

It was decided during a high-level meeting on solid waste management project for the city. The meeting held at Gopalpur was chaired by Ganjam Collector Krishen Kumar and attended by Berhampur MLA R.C.C. Patnaik, Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy, Berhampur Mayor S.S.Dash, officials of the BMC, officials of International Financial Corporation (IFC) and other organisations interested in the project.

The Rs. 70-crore project for the city will be taken up in the Public-Private Participation (PPP) mode.  The BMC is taking up the project in collaboration with International Financial Corporation (IFC), which is providing technological and tactical support. As per the authorities of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC), the tender process for the project is expected to end by July.

The site of the project has been decided to be near Mohuda village on the outskirts of the city. It will come up on an area of around 30 acres. Fifty per cent of the cost of the project will be borne by the IFC. Of the remaining amount, the BMC will get 25 per cent of the investment as grant-in-aid. The rest will be procured as a loan by the BMC.

Survey

As per a survey made in 2009, Berhampur is producing over 150 tons of solid waste every day. The solid waste treatment plant was earlier proposed to be established at Chandania hill on the outskirts of the city. Twenty acres of land was also earmarked for the purpose.

According to the BMC sources, a boundary wall was built up around the land patch at a cost of over Rs. 50 lakh. But it was found that the land at Chandania hill was forest land and unless it was transferred to the Revenue Department and consequently to the BMC, the waste treatment plant cannot be established on the land. So, the new site has been demarcated for the purpose near Mohuda.

But till now solid waste of the city gets dumped near Chandania hill. The delegates, who attended the meeting on solid waste management, also visited the Chandania hill site. It was decided that the huge dump of waste could not left to destroy natural habitat of the area. So, it was decided that measures would be initiated to recycle and safely dispose of the dumped waste.

 

Towards making Guntur clean

Thursday, 18 April 2013 06:05 administrator
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The Hindu                       18.04.2013

Towards making Guntur clean

A student of NRI Institute of Technology collecting data from a resident at Mala Kondaiah Colony in Guntur on Wednesday. —Photo: Vijaya Kumar
A student of NRI Institute of Technology collecting data from a resident at Mala Kondaiah Colony in Guntur on Wednesday. —Photo: Vijaya Kumar

Students join hands with GMC to bag Clean City Championship.

Students of various engineering colleges have pledged their support to the Guntur Municipal Corporation by conducting a household survey as part of the civic body’s effort to bag the Clean City Championship.

The Clean City Championship, modelled on the Indian Premier League, is a race among the civic staff to keep the city clean. Points would be given on benchmarks of effective solid waste management — creating awareness, waste segregation at source, and recycling of waste. Even students have been involved in this and they would conduct door-to-door survey on the work done by the sanitary staff.

Warangal Municipal Corporation was the first in the State to host the championship in 2012. Now it is the turn of the Guntur Municipal Corporation.

On Wednesday, Municipal Commissioner P. Srinivasulu flagged off college buses carrying students of RVR & JC College of Engineering, NRI Institute of Technology, and Malineni Perumallu Integrated Campus.

Municipal Health Officers — Lakshma Naik and Sridhar — were present. Environmental Engineer, Tenali, Uday Singh, who played a prominent part in Warangal, was present.

Students fanned out to residential and commercial areas spanning across eight election divisions in Guntur and conducted a baseline household survey. The primary survey report has details about the door number, name of the house owners, number of people residing on various floors of the house etc.

“The survey helps us review our manpower and infrastructure. We will also know the number of commercial holdings and deploy more number of men,” MHO Sridhar told The Hindu .

A curtain raiser to the launch of the Clean City Championship will be held on April 25 and the championship will commence on May 5.

 
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