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| Revival of Municipal solid waste management towards cleaner India | | |
DR. Manzoor Ahmed Yetoo
Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is one of the major environmental problems of Indian cities. Improper management of municipal solid waste (MSW) causes hazards to inhabitants. Various studies reveal that about 90% of MSW is disposed of unscientifically in open dumps and landfills, creating problems to public health and the environment. The MSW amount is expected to increase significantly in the near future as the country strives to attain an industrialized nation status by the year 2020.Since we are striving for clean (sooch bharat) India ,there is every scope for revival/overhaul of existing system. The informal policy of encouraging the public to separate MSW and market it directly to the informal network appears to be a better option. The involvement of people and private sector through NGOs could improve the efficiency of MSWM. Public awareness should be created among masses to inculcate the health hazards of the wastes. NGOs and citizen's committees should be employed to supervise segregation and collection from the generation source to collection points located at intermediate points between sources and dump sites. In addition, the welfare associations on specified monthly payment arrange collection in some urban areas. A sweeper who sweeps the roads manually is allotted a specific area (around 250 m). The sweepers put the road wastes into a wheelbarrow, and then transfer the waste to dustbins or collection points.In most cities, a fraction of MSW generated remains uncollected on streets, and what is collected is transported to processing or disposal sites. The collection efficiency is the quantity of MSW collected and transported from streets to disposal sites divided by the total quantity of MSW generated during the same period. Many studies on urban environment have revealed that MSW collection efficiency is a function of two major factors: manpower availability and transport capacity. The average collection efficiency for MSW in Indian cities and states is about 70%. Efficiency is high in the cities and states, where private contractors and NGOs are employed for the collection and transportation of MSW. Most of the cities are unable to provide waste collection services to all parts of the city.Generally, overcrowded low-income settlements do not have MSW collection and disposal services. The reason is that these settlements are often illegal and the inhabitants are unwilling or unable to pay for the services. They throw away the waste near or around their houses at different times, which makes the collection and transportation of waste very difficult in these areas.Littering of MSW should be prohibited in cities, towns and urban areas notified by the state government. Moreover, house-to-house collection of MSW should be organized through methods like collection on regular pre-informed timing and scheduling. The collection bins must be appropriately designed with features like metallic containers with lids, and to have a large enough capacity to accommodate 20% more than the expected waste generation in the area, with a design for mechanical loading and un-loading, placement at appropriate locations, etc. Municipal authorities should maintain the storage facilities in such a manner that they do not create unhygienic and unsanitary conditions. Proper maintenance of the MSW transportation vehicles must be conducted, and the Dumper Placer should replace the old transportation vehicles in a phased manner .Currently, at the level of waste generation and collection, there is no source segregation of compostable waste from the other non-biodegradable and recyclable waste. Proper segregation would lead to better options and opportunities for scientific disposal of waste. Recyclables could be straightway transported to recycling units that in turn would pay a certain amount to the corporations, thereby adding to their income. This would help in formalizing the existing informal set up of recycling units. It could lead to several advantages such as enabling technology up gradation, better quality products, saving of valuable raw material resources of country, reducing the need for landfill space, a less energy-intensive way to produce some products and employing labor in recycling industries. Organizing the informal sector and promoting micro-enterprises are an effective way of extending affordable services. Promotion and development of recycling is a means of upgrading living and working conditions of rag pickers and other marginalized groups.Most of the MSW in India is dumped on land in an uncontrolled manner. Such inadequate disposal practices lead to problems that will impair human and animal health and result in economic, environmental and biological losses. Comparing the biological, chemical and thermal treatment options in the Indian scenario, perhaps the bio-logical processing options get the priority. Composting and vermin composting are successful and quite popular now in India instead of incineration. But, it is slow process and requires a large space. An open dump or an uncontrolled waste disposal area should be rehabilitated. It is advisable to move from open dumping to sanitary land filling in a phased manner. Land filling should be restricted to non biodegradable, inert waste and other waste that are not suitable either for recycling or for biological processing. The current regulations (MSWM rules, 2000) are very stringent. Norms have been developed to ensure a proper MSWM system. Unfortunately, clearly there is a large gap between policy and implementation.
The producer responsibility is to avoid having products on the market that cannot be handled effectively and environmentally correctly when they become waste products. A new survey should be carried out on the generation and characterization of MSW in India. Since the MSW is heterogeneous in nature, a large number of samples have to be collected and analyzed to obtain statistically reliable results.The increase of service demands combined with the lack of resources for municipalities are putting a huge strain on the existing MSWM systems. Synchronization of all these efforts can lead us to a cleaner India and all such campaigns will deliver results.
The author is an expert consultant/adviser in environment ,project & waste Management, occupational safety& health & pollution control and empanelled expert for IRCA). (You may reach him at [email protected]) |
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