Municipal Solid Waste-Challenges and the road ahead

[Rohit Singla]

Municipal Solid Waste is the easiest source of pollution and is the largest source of pollution (by quantity).

In India, we normally complain that our cities are not clean. We always find dirty and stinking places at large even in the best of our cities and metropolis. Solid waste is the most common nuisance faced by the people at large and it has become such a part of our daily lives that we knowingly or unknowingly almost neglect the situation nowadays. We attribute this either to the not knowing attitude of the illiterate or less literate public, the attitude of ours towards the common household waste and the callous attitude of the Municipal authorities and the Pollution Boards.

In fact, it is much a larger problem entailing the unregulated population growth, the poor and the illiterate section of our society who do not know the seriousness of the situation because they have many other more issues, our non clear information about the roles and responsibilities of ourselves and authorities concerned, the financial constraints faced by the Municipal authorities, the regulatory constraints of the Pollution Boards and the governments on paper attitude towards this problem.

India’s population is growing roughly at the rate of 1.3 percent every year which is directly proportional to the growth rate of the solid waste generation in India. Demographically, the population as well as the solid waste generation is more in the northern states of India. Consider this: Imagine you are living in a small town having a population of 1 lakh. Assuming the solid waste generation to be 10 kg per capita per day, the site where the municipal solid waste is being dumped at present will need more land area to accommodate additional 13000 kg of solid waste a year from now.

Legally, the solid waste management is ought to be done according to the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 framed under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. According to these rules, every municipal authority is responsible for collection, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solid waste. The Secretary-in charge of the Department of Urban Development of a particular state or the Union Territory has the overall responsibility for the enforcement of the provisions of these rules at the State Level and the District Magistrate or the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned District has the overall responsibility for the enforcement of these rules at the District Level. The State Pollution Control Board/Committee is the authority to monitor the compliance of the standards regarding the ground water, ambient air, leachate quality and the compost quality, if any, from the site of the landfill. To set up a Common Municipal Solid Waste Management Facility, the municipal authority is required to obtain the Environmental Clearance from the State Level Environmental Impact Assessing Authority (SEIAA). The suitability of the Municipal Solid Waste Processing site is taken into consideration through a public hearing process and if it is a success, EC is granted.

Schedule-II of these rules clearly defines how the management through the collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of the municipal solid waste ought to be done by the municipal authority. Schedule III specifies the norms for the landfill sites and schedule-IV describes the standards for composting, treated leachates and incineration.

In spite of such defined roles and responsibilities, we have failed to implement these rules largely due to large issues:-the non-availability of suitable site. Most of the sites fail to adjust according to the Master Plans/draft plans approved by the Govt. and the people living nearby. People are not willing to give their land since they believe that land once used for this purpose will be non-usable for years after that. If the land is available, the cost is too high that the Municipal authorities/Govt. feels a burn in their pockets. The non-segregation of waste is a major factor in the improper treatment of solid waste and will be in future if it is not corrected. We the general public shall be very sensitive towards it by segregating the bio-degradable waste which can be composted, non-biodegradable waste which can be properly land filled and the recyclable solid waste which can reduce the quantity of the overall municipal solid waste. The dilapidated financial state of the Municipal authorities are becoming a big problem. The money to maintain the dump sites, the cost to regularly use the compactors for waste compaction and putting soil/inert debris afterwards, the transportation costs, the leachate treatment costs are all to be borne by the Municipal authorities. The principle of “Polluter Pays” can be applied to solve this problem. Charging according to the waste generated by the waste generator, that is us, will help generate finances to the authorities and will also help in reducing unnecessary waste. The illiterate or the less literate persons can only be educated by the educated, we should take initiative ourselves to help them know the graveness of the present situation and the benefits of management of solid waste that will only help them since it will also reduce the disease carrying bacteria and microorganism in the environment.

The recent developments at the National Green Tribunal has led to the State Govt., authorities at the State and District level to enforce the Municipal Solid Waste Rules in an effective manner. Days are not far when we can see the change in the effective management of solid waste, but this cannot be achieved without our support and help.

 

 

 

[Dr. Dharmendra]

This kind of problem easily solved by only and only by municipal corporation people  neither  other person can  directly participate  nor their role, because every citizen paying municipal tax and other kind of tax. Here by few suggestion for  municipal  corporation by which they can involve their citizen and by change in their policy and willingness towards solve the problem.

1. for  generating  fund through equity by public issue could be launch so that profit and loss share with public.

2 once public involved in this  process easily start help in solid waste  segregation, collection and disposal process. because their money involve in this process.

3 Promote and give some tax  benefit who were involve in above mention process

there are much more thing but honesty is the best policy which really adopted by the municipal corporation 

[srinivas shankar]

sir,

rules apart, can we find a way to deter the rag pickers who systematically litter the collected garbage .

the system of source segregation and then disposal to any dump yard should be done with a view to use the space optimally and disposal of composted garbage would augment reqired space.

please note all composts are not agriculturally relevant.

MSw composting is only size reduction and as is suggested the people should  pay for being irresponsible and when u become responsible pay less.

shankar

[Rohit Singla]

You are true Shailendrasinh Jadeja.

The ceding of the responsibility of managing solid waste by the Municipal Committees/ Corporations to the private players through contracts has been a trend a nowadays which has failed in many cases. This is surely a need to be improved area.

[Rohit Singla]

Dear Dr. Kishore Wankhade,

I agree with you that there have been success of community based MSW management programs in jhuggis and slums with the help of learned persons rather than in rich colonies. 

My intent was to just highlight the point that there exist people who are poor and illiterate which either do not have enough experience or don't have the help of learned persons,who also do not earn enough even to afford one day meal and don't even have a place to sleep, they barely think or can apply solid waste management and this population is surely large enough than the rich population.

Regards

[Rohit Singla]

Dear Sri Narayana Rao Mushti,

I will sure give a read to the solutions as mentioned in the book referred by you.

Regards

[Atulesh]

Problem of MSW management could not be tackled until or unless Citizens of its nation understand about their roles and responsibilities... Its not our government who is always responsible for and is blamed... We'll have to make make them aware about the current scenario, thus only the problem can be solved in a substantial manner... 

[Shailendrasinh Jadeja]

Dear Rohit,

I agree with you but just for your information that at present local municipality only interested to clean the city and they not take care of the near by site area,majority of corporation issue contract with private party for segregation and processing and they are not follow the pollution rules so many malpractice are done in MSW processing and landfill

[Dr. Kishore Wankhade]

Dear Mr. Singla,

I tend to disagree with your statement that 'the poor and the illiterate section of our society who do not know the seriousness of the situation' because as far as my experience goes rich and literate sections of our society are also not serious about MSW related issues.... there are several examples i can site...success of community based MSW management programmes in jhuggis and slums as compared to rich colonies etc...

[Narayana Rao Mushti]

Dear Sri Rohit Singla,

I fully agree with your views on MSW. We have to apply locale-specific technologies in solving this problem with the support of the stakeholders. The sense of belonging should be inculcated in the public in dealing with this problem. We have made an attempt to suggest solutions to this problem in our recent book" Solid and Hazardous Waste Management" by M N Rao and Razia Sultana, BS Publications,Hyderabad (2012).