Ugadi: BBMP starts new year of garbage

BBMP and garbage, it’s the ‘shame’ old story: post-Ugadi, mounds of garbage have piled up across the city. While the BBMP has over the last five years failed spectacularly on every aspect of garbage clearance and disposal – be it awarding tenders, garbage clearance, transporting waste to collection centres and treatment plants, maintenance of landfills -- the civic authority has conveniently put the blame on residents saying they have failed to segregate waste!

It’s the ‘shame’ old story. Post Ugadi, mounds of garbage have appeared all across the city, with the BBMP seeming in a hurry to clear them. For the last five years the civic agency has miserably failed to get its act together on waste disposal. While it has failed on all counts – collection, disposal ,  upkeep of landfills and dry waste collection centres, it is now conveniently putting the blame on residents, saying they have failed to segregate waste!

If it has to solve the deepening  garbage crisis of the city,  the BBMP clearly needs to do some honest soul searching and ponder some pertinent questions like :
Where are the bins to dump segregated waste? Can people store dry waste for  days together in homes and not have it attract dogs and rats? Shouldn’t every street corner have sealed bins?  When  RT Nagar has taken a lead in  providing a garbage kiosk with two attendants in tow to make there is no littering around it,  why cannot the BBMP  replicate it across  Bengaluru?  Or more pertinently, does it have the will and manpower to do so ?

Why are the pourakarmikas allowed to be a law unto themselves? They turn up  if you are lucky and even if segregated waste is handed to them,   often  mix it up right before your eyes.  It is said that some pourakarmikas show up only for attendance in some wards and are sent to other wards by the contractor.

Why bring in the concept of segregation when for the last 10 years the authorities have failed to enforce the law? The penalty for violations has only become another tool for health inspectors to make more money from residents and bulk generators Many of these health inspectors collect a petty '100 or '200 per building and turn a blind eye to violations.

Does everyone in Bengaluru even know that three-way segregation of garbage at source is a must? Despite spending crores of rupees on awareness campaigns, segregation has not fully taken off.   Haven’t all these funds gone down the drain? From star campaigns, T.V commercials, newsprint ads to school visits, the BBMP carried out  a slew of programmes to reach out to people. Yet many don’t understand the concept.

After four years of opposition and  protests by villagers does it make sense to go back to the landfill concept?  Will villages near the eight new landfills allow dumping of  muck at their doorsteps when others have not?

Segregation of waste is not rocket science: Meenakshi Bharat, Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF)
The city should move towards decentralisation rather than centralisation when it comes to garbage processing. The garbage generated in a particular ward should be processed within and not sent outside.

The concept of community garbage bins may not be a workable idea and should be done away with. If the bigger containers are encouraged ,  you will need cranes to lift them . Besides, these cranes are investment heavy and cannot be manoeuvred on all city roads. Segregation of waste is no rocket science. All one has to do is seperate the wet, dry and hazardous waste. This is a simple eco-friendly principle.

While wet waste should be composted locally , dry waste collection centres (DWCC) must become more efficient. Besides penalising people for not segregating garbage, the corporator and MLA who fail to advocate its importance in their areas and the pourakarmikas who mix the garbage, must be penalised too. The health inspector should also be held responsible and fined if mixed waste is found in a ward.

We’re a city of limited funds: Kalpana Kar, member, Solid Waste Management Round Table
Successful solid waste management needs solid partnership of government, the administration and citizens. We are a city of limited funds, limited land and limited policies.  So when  land was identified for processing plants, the officials should have created a buffer zone, for the sake of the people living nearby. The blame-game  should stop if we are to find a permanent solution to the crisis.

Cities like Delhi are suffocated by landfills. This should  be a lesson to us. The government has invested crores on setting up processing plants, but is not able to run them professionally. The contractor lobby rules here and it does not want easy, manageable methods of garbage management. We need strong political will and an active citizens’ movement. 

Pilot project on manned kiosks kicks in: N. S. Ramakanth, Expert Committee on Solid Waste Management constituted by High Court
Pilot project on a manned kiosk has kicked off in R. T. Nagar. The kiosk, which has a container to hold 250 kgs of garbage, has been sponsored by a school. Two pourakarmikas manning it ensure there is no littering around it and the garbage is given to them. Once they receive it, they segregate the garbage if need be and give a report to the health inspectors on who is not segregating the waste. A similar kiosk sponsored  by ITC has been planned at HSR layout .  It will be manned by one attendant  from 9 am to 2 pm.

Besides, citizens and volunteers who can help create awareness on segregation are being identified. I humbly urge the public to segregate their dry waste and suggest the BBMP  make composting  mandatory for the wet waste at the  household level.

Segregation of garbage is the solution. There is no escaping it. Sending segregated waste to the scientific waste processing units solves 50 per cent of the garbage problem. Unless the BBMP penalizes citizens, the garbage issue cannot be resolved.

The problem lies with borrowing foreign tech: Lalita Monderetti
co-founder, Kasa-Mukta Bellandur  
Solid waste management has hit an all-time low in the city with the BBMP having no destination to send the city’s garbage to. All these years, landfills like Mandur and Terra Firma carried the burden. But now with these landfills shutting down and residents protesting against mismanagement of processing plants, the garbage has nowhere to go but the streets. The state government may have invested crores on setting up the processing plants, but the problem lies with borrowing a foreign technology and the lack of local expertise in running them. Although the plants can process 500 tonnes of waste, less than 100 tonnes is reaching them. Also, they were inaugurated in a hurry and lack basic infrastructure like leachate treatment facility and odour control mechanism. The BBMP must address these problems.

There were reports that the state government wanted to install garbage segregators to enhance segregation at source. But buying such equipment will be a sheer waste of public money as it can segregate less than 20 per cent of the city’s garbage. We must understand that even Japan, Germany and Singapore  battled a garbage crisis for decades and it took them 40 years to get where they are now. We need to ensure that mixed waste does not go out of our homes if are to resolve our garbage crisis similarly.

Will solve problem in a week: Kumar Naik, BBMP Commissioner
Earlier, the BBMP pointed fingers at the common man for non-segregation of garbage. Now, the BBMP has failed to collect and transfer garbage. How did the crisis blown out of proportion in just a few days?
It all started with the shutting down of Terra Firma on March 31. We took time to find alternatives and make arrangements, and by then, protests started at all garbage processing plants. We used to transport 1,200 tonnes of garbage to Terra Firma landfill and around its closure time, it was brought down to 700 tonnes. We had hoped to reach at least 90 per cent segregation by now, so that shutting down the plant wouldn’t affect us. But not everything has gone according to our plan and garbage management is affected at the moment.
 
Why weren’t buffer zones identified when processing plants were set up?
Allotting buffer zones means valuable loss of land around processing plants. Moreover, this concept was not fully known and understood when the proposal for setting up plants was made. Buffer zones should have been identified while constructing the plants.
 
Garbage contractors who are violating rules are having a leeway. Why aren’t they dealt with an iron hand?
The problem with garbage disposal has not been the lone fault of contractors. Evacuation has been affected due to lack of destination. We will soon end this crisis. We need a week’s time.
 
Can the BBMP find an alternative solution if it brings back community bins?
No, it is not a solution. We have considered proposals to install dustbins in commercial areas where there is floating population. Bringing community bins will only add more problems as clearance and maintenance of bins becomes difficult.