Clean Crusaders

  • Barnali Dutta / FG
  • India
  • Jan 16, 2015


Photo: Prakhar Pandey

Operation ‘Swachh Gurgaon’ is on its way. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), along with a citizen forum in Gurgaon, has planned a comprehensive waste management programme in the ‘Millennium City’ - to create a healthier living environment for the residents and those who come to work here every day. In a bid to create serious awareness among the people, they have launched the ‘Why Waste Your Waste (WWYW) programme, which advocates a decentralised waste management movement as the way forward to a clean and healthy environment in Gurgaon. It also promotes a culture of recycling and composting, for the stabilisation and reduction of waste. With positive and effective support provided by the RWAs (Residents’ Welfare Associations), the district authorities now have reasons to feel optimistic.
A series of awareness programmes, including hands-on knowledge on waste management, has begun. One of the biggest concerns is the manner in which waste is being managed and disposed. Often plastic and other toxic wastes have found their way to landfills - which has adversely impacted the soil and damaged its greening potential. Says Ms Ruchika Sethi Thakkar, Citizen Volunteer and Founder Member of the WWYW campaign, ”It is laudable that the HUDA Administrator Anita Yadav has proposed the implementation of a pilot project for decentralised waste management in HUDA Sector 31.” This would mean implementing source segregation and compost making within the premises, she says. Further, it would help cut down transportation cost and carbon emissions, and reduce the burden on landfills and the Bandhwari Waste Treatment Plant (which is currently non-functional). The new programme will prioritise the safety and well being of the (waste) workers, as secondary segregation will be done in a hygienic and safe manner, she adds. This apart, the Sector 31 RWA will get a by-product of valuable organic fertilizer (compost) for its parks, gardens and homes, she says.

HUDA and the citizens committee, which held a meeting recently, agreed on a series of activities for creating awareness, educating the people and implementing health and waste management programmes that would also involve the residents. The forum broadly agreed on the following:

A) Awareness and Education campaign: WWYW citizen volunteers will hold workshops with the concerned residents and RWA members to help build awareness and consensus amongst the residents.

B) Waste segregation at household level: It was agreed by the RWA that they would support the policy of waste segregation and issue a comprehensive Waste Management policy, as follows:

i) Wet Waste: Kitchen and horticulture would be disposed in unlined bins, with newspapers appropriately lodged at the bottom of the bins, for absorbing moisture. Compostable bags would be directly emptied in collection containers of the waste pickers by the housekeeping staff.

ii) Dry Waste: Paper, cardboard, packaging material, metal, cloth, rubber, glass, aluminum foil and plastic would be stored in a clean, dry state, in either cloth, plastic or paper bags - or directly emptied in the collection containers.

iii) Sanitary & Residual: House dust, dead pests, hair, diapers, sanitary pads, old medicines, needles, blood and body fluid contaminated items and Styrofoam waste would all be well tied up in a paper bag. This waste should preferably be the only waste that should find its way to the sanitary landfill site.

iv) E-waste: This should NOT be mixed with sanitary waste and should not reach the landfill site without a proper resource recovery as per MOEF guidelines (through government authorised dismantlers and recyclers). CPCB guidelines and norms should be followed for material recovery. E-waste could also be disposed at notified collection centres (or collection centres of producers that have been mandated by law, as per their extended  responsibility).

C) Sector 31 RWA can undertake E-waste Collection Drives periodically, and set good standards of environmental consciousness.

D) The RWA will co-ordinate a meeting between Citizen Volunteers and the current sanitation (door-to-door) garbage collector, to discuss the remodelling of the collection and transportation of segregated household waste - as also E-waste segregation.

E) Wet Waste composting techniques and service providers should be reviewed by HUDA.

F) Three sites have been selected, in order to provide a sustainable waste processing solution.

G) Sector 31 RWA office bearers reiterated the need to have HUDA sites designated for Construction & Demolition (C&D) Waste, as this is one of the biggest waste streams, and is creating a civic mess in the area. C&D Waste generators are engaging local transporters, who are discarding the rubble in the open, or in drains and parks. 

The RWA is willing to issue an integrated policy, including possible penalty, to its resident community, to adhere to correct waste disposal methods, once HUDA advises its C&D Waste removal policy. The local civil contractors and transporters, as well as individual tractor trolley, push cart and rickshaw ‘operators’ will be notified by the RWA to dispose malba only in the designated areas.

Col. Man Singh, President of Sector 31 RWA, opines, "I have been working extensively in the area of waste management and believe that proper disposal of waste is critical to cleanliness and public health.” He adds that the RWA has procured an acre of land and started filling the land with leaves, to prepare it for the setting up of a waste processing plant - where the RWA intends to create ‘wealth from waste’. “At present we are active in kitchen and organic waste. In future we will work on other types of waste too," the Col. says. The Administration is also very upbeat about the project. MCG Commissioner Vikas Gupta says," We are working on this and hope to get it off the ground in a week’s time.” Gupta lauds the project and says that if such a project were undertaken by every RWA, the Millennium City would be almost free from garbage, and greener. “The civic bodies are now playing an important role, but we also need such kind of active resident forums," Gupta adds. The committee believes that the younger generation will have to be co-opted, so that they can be witness to the change, and even be a part of it. “If we take charge and work to manage our waste more responsibly, the next generation is sure to remember us as those who took stock and changed things for them - rather than those who did not care and left things in a total mess,” a committee members says.

 

The overall effort is indeed laudable. There is a sense of optimism among the authorities, now that the plan has taken off. However, there is caution too. “Plans will remain plans if the whole thing does not become a people’s movement,” says Col. Man Singh.  For instance, all the parks and green areas have become home to an army of pigs, whose ownership is not known. The planting of flowers and plants has become difficult. Col Singh laments the lethargy that seems to be evident in the working of the authorities. “What are the authorities doing? This pig issue is not new to Gurgaon. Now their unbridled growth is making the area more dirty and unhealthy for all kinds of life, including plants and vegetation,” he says. 

 
Contribution by Ruchika Sethi Thakkar

The 3R mantra: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

The Approach: Waste stabilisation and reduction, by adopting a decentralised approach. 
 - Ensure waste segregation at source - waste management begins at home. 
 - Dry Waste recycling leads to optimum resource recovery 
 - Wet Waste composting should take place within societies, complexes or wards
 - E-waste/Hazardous Waste should be safely disposed.

Household Waste Management Pilot Projects:
Sector 31 - HUDA colony - led by Col. Man Singh
Ashok Vihar Phase 2 – MCG Ward 6 - led by Parminder Kataria (Deputy Mayor)
DLF Phase 1, Block H – Private colony - led by Parimal Bardhan.
Leisure Valley Horticulture Waste Management project - for making leaf compost and mulch (contact - Narala, HUDA). 

Target: only Sanitary Waste and non-recyclable residual waste should be sent to a landfill

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