In my previous column I had explained in detail the flaws inGovernment’s Action Plan on Solid Waste Management. For the information ofreaders who missed that piece I want to update them that Government is planningto create waste management clusters across J&K by clubbing 2 to 3 towns ormore forming one cluster. Municipal solid waste generated towns will be brought to a one particular location for processing. This modelis not economically and scientifically viable because trucks laden withmunicipal waste will have to travel from different smaller towns to reach abigger town. Like in case of Srinagar cluster all the municipal waste has to bebrought from surrounding towns of Budgam, Chadoora, Magam, Ganderbal toSrinagar. Imagine how will these trash laden trucks reach Srinagar cluster whenwe have bad roads and traffic jams? Eventhe agencies who do waste processing work have clearly said “NO” to clustermodel as not even a single bidder has come forward. Tenders were issued severaltimes but the centralized model has no takers at all. The only viable solutionin de-centralizing the whole process of waste management plus going ahead within-house composting of organic waste.
Scientific landfill site
Managing the municipal solid waste is a global challenge. Ina place like Jammu & Kashmir this work is more challenging in view of theunique geography and ecological sensitivities. We have towns located onmountains and plains both. In mountains clubbing towns is impossible. Similarlyin Kashmir valley where the land is shrinking day by day , finding out a hugechunk of land is again very difficult task. The landfill sites which are set up on scientific lines are now calledResource Recovery Sites because the waste is no more waste but a resourceprovided citizens and municipal staff follow the scientific practices. A scientific landfill site is a place that isdeveloped for controlled disposal and scientific treatment of Municipal SolidWaste (MSW). These sites should abide by the guidelines of Municipal SolidWaste rules (MSW Rules 2016). In J&K we don’t have even one such site inoperation.
Decentralizing whole process
The ill-conceived model adopted by Government violates MSWRules 2016. MSW Rules call for source segregation of waste into bio-degradableand non-bio degradable waste , but when the garbage is lifted in bulk and thentransported to bigger cluster towns , the segregation of waste is not possible.MSW rules say that only 20 % waste(non-biodegradable and inert) has to betransported to a landfill site and rest of the organic waste (resource) is tobe treated by in-house composting or by creating decentralized waste processingunits / compost pits in residential colonies itself. But Government’s ActionPlan bypasses all these guidelines. There is no scope for in-house compositingor creating small waste processing sites where the organic waste generated canbe locally treated so that pressure on bigger landfill sites is brought down ?
Conclusion
If SMC can mobilize 30 % of households who have some landavailable around their house to compost food, vegetable & fruit waste inthe kitchen gardens, we can reduce more than 150 metric tons of waste inSrinagar city alone daily. At an average each household generates 1 kg oforganic waste in Srinagar daily which can easily be processed inside the fourwalls of our house but Govt and even citizens are not serious about it. I ammyself compositing all the organic waste in my kitchen garden from last 3years. This whole process needs proper segregation of waste. Municipalauthorities find all this a challenging task and that is the reason they wantto lift everything in trucks and transport it to some other location where theyplan to process it, but that is very difficult because all the transportedwaste is in a mixed form. This is mere re-location of the waste rather than ascientific processing.