Will the BBMP wake up to the stink?

It is unfortunate that the city, which spends a whopping Rs 500 crore on solid waste management, fell several places to 38 in the Swachh Bharat rankings. The BBMP is banking on a strategy of processing all waste, rather than a smarter one of segregation and local initiatives, but could it at least ensure proper collection and transportation of waste?

It was waiting to happen. The civic authorities may pretend to be taken by surprise by the poor rating Bengaluru has received in the sanitation survey, Swachch Survekshan 2016 conducted under the Swachch Bharat Mission, but it has only confirmed what Bengalureans have long known: The city is going steadily downhill in terms of cleanliness as the growing garbage piles on its roads clearly show.

The Garden City’s transformation to Garbage City has demoted it to  38th place from its 11th rank of 2014 in the survey, shaming the BBMP and Bengalureans, who are forced to put up with their filthy surroundings despite paying their taxes to keep it clean. In many areas people have no choice but to dump their garbage on the roads in the absence of proper door-to-door collection especially of the dry waste, which the BBMP is not doing a good job of collecting despite insisting on segregation of garbage, say civic activists, who find it hard to digest its claim that it spends Rs 500 crore annually on solid waste management (SWM).

But ask BBMP special commissioner (SWM), Subodh Yadav and he has no hestiation inpassing the buck on the taxpaying public. “The survey only shows that the BBMP needs to be more vocal in getting the public involved in keeping the city clean and to showcase what it has been doing,” he contends. “We have been placing more emphasis on processing waste rather than the  visual cleanliness of the city. However, we are being methodical and in days to come Bengaluru will be one of the cleanest cities,” he signs off, blaming  the refusal of villagers, the series of festivals and even the rain for the garbage piling up on the roads.

While the city has seven waste processing plants which handle about 1,800 tonnes of waste every day, it’s the remaining rubbish which is clearly cluttering it. On an average, Bengaluru generates about 3,500 to 4,000 tonnes of waste every day. The BBMP claims 1,800 tonnes is processed scientifically, and the remaining is dumped at the landfills of Terrafirma and MSGP Infratech Pvt. Ltd. near Doddaballapur.

But the fact that a lot of the rubbish still finds its way to city roads, shows that the civic body is failing very badly in collecting the waste and transporting it to either the processing centres or the landfills.  The BBMP has set up over 150 dry waste collection centres in the city, but you wouldn’t think so going by the plastic covers and bottles found dumped on the roadsides with all sorts of food stuff that dogs and cows feed on, while swatting at the flies swarming around.
In some wards, pourakarmikas collect dry waste like high value plastic to make some money from the dry waste collection centres, but the dry waste collection by the BBMP on the whole clearly begs for improvement in most parts.  Private dry waste collection agencies like ITC and Swachcha have stepped in, but are clearly finding the burden hard to bear.

“Although segregation of waste has been made mandatory, the BBMP is only collecting wet waste.  So most of the dry and plastic waste  is left on street corners,” rues Ms Sandhya Narayanana, a member of the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) .

Not surprised by the pathetic rating the city has recieved for its cleanliness, she squarely blames it on the poor door-to-door collection, transportation and processing of garbage by the BBMP. Civic activist, N. S. Ramakanth feels that as long as the mafia, the MLAs and corporators rule the SWM sector,  a clean Bengaluru will always be a distant dream.

“The tender conditions must be realistic and encouraging for contractors. Just because a contractor has a fleet of vehicles the BBMP cannot expect him to have both dry waste collection and wet waste processing centres as well.The role of contractors should be limited to collection and transportation,” Ms Narayana underlines.

She also faults the condition of the state of the art waste processing plants, which are letting off stench in the absence of bio-filters. “Any delay in installing them will make the plants ineffective and unacceptable to the community living around them,” she warns .

Palike’s new scheme ‘Suchi Mitra’ seeks public involvement
Whether the poor sanitation rating the city has received will give the BBMP a wake-up call and prompt it do some much needed introspection on factors responsible within the organisation for the mess, is hard to say. But it is making some cosmetic changes.The agency has come up with a scheme, Suchi Mitra, to involve the public in garbage collection.

At least four volunteers will be made Suchi Mitras in every ward to monitor how the rubbish is collected and transported. The civic agency will give them badges authorising them to keep an eye on their immediate surroundings.

Additionally, a WhatsApp group has been created with the BBMP’s Chief Engineer and Joint Commissioners on board. People can bring black spots with garbage in the city to the attention of the officials in the group, who will then do the needful. Should the black spots still remain, those responsible will supposedly attract stern action.

Meanwhile, a few Resident Welfare Association (RWA) members have joined the BBMP in carrying out a ban on plastic in Yelahanka, Puttenahalli, Koramangala and HSR Layout, according to waste management expert, N. S. Ramakanth. “Usually, it is the low value plastic and other cheap waste that is found dumped on roads. So the banning of plastic has helped,” he says.

Despite innovation coming out of B’luru, garbage remains an issue: Meenakshi Bharath, member, Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF)
Why is Bengaluru not able to come out of the garbage mess it has created for itself? Is it a lack of political will, the administration failing to take corrective steps,  the mafia proving too powerful or the apathy of the citizens. Clearly it is more of the former and less of the latter.

Despite so much innovation coming out of Bengaluru in the field of garbage management, with people willing to do their bit, we continue to wallow in piles of garbage.We were the first to talk about decentralised garbage management, adhering to the “Yes in my backyard concept”. The citizens have taken responsibility for segregating waste at home. After a few hiccups the ‘Two Bin, One bag’ concept was finalised and over 10,000 homes are now following it. While the wet waste is expected to be collected daily, (although many have begun composting at home) the dry waste is supposed to be collected twice a week.

Also, the garbage generated in one ward must be dealt with in its boundaries.The wet and garden waste should be composted and the dry waste sent to the dry waste collection centres to be sorted out and taken to the recycling centres. The integration of the ragpickers with these centres has been one of the biggest boons to the city as they come with years of skill to segregate waste into its various categories. Biogas units have also been set up to take care of the hotel waste and produce biogas. Many localities have gone plastic-free, another citizen-driven initiative.

The still remaining trees of the ‘Garden city’ produce a lot of leaves this season, which can be converted in its parks into wonderful manure. But does all this happen? No. In fact, you will see leaves being burnt everywhere with impunity.

The court has also passed some wonderful judgements encompassing all the above procedures. But does the BBMP take heed of any of this? Tonnes of garbage is still lying all over the city, giving it the 38th rank in the country for ‘Swachata’. We can only hope the civic agency has woken up at least now after the city’s dismal rating in the national survey.