Andhra Pradesh lags behind in waste processing

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh lags far behind in the waste processing component compared to other states in  the country with the percentage of waste being processed limited to eight per cent as on January 2016.

Every day, the urban local bodies of Andhra Pradesh generate about 6,440 metric tonne of garbage. But unfortunately most of it collected from the households is dumped into landfills without any processing.

As per the projections, the quantum of household garbage would grow double-fold in the next 10 years, which compels the urban local bodies to look for alternatives such as waste-to-energy plants, scientific disposing and plastic shredding units.  

According to the recently released Swachhta Status Report by the National Sample Survey (NSS) office, about 3,072 out of 3,389 wards of urban local bodies (ULBs) of AP do have 100 per cent door-to-door collection. But the percentage of processing accounts for a tiny fraction compared to what is generated.

Unorganised waste management practices could pose an array of threats right from the open burning releasing toxic gases and pollutants and the pollutants seeping into the groundwater and causing subsequent health problems. Though the Union government drafted some guidelines with regards to municipal solid waste management for effective segregation and disposal, implementation is still on the low side.

A state official informed that they had initiated various measures, including composting and vermi-composting facilities in several civic bodies besides the waste-to-energy plants. The SSR report by NSS also highlights that about 32.9 percentage of villages of Andhra Pradesh do not have any drainage arrangements. In AP, only about 45.9 wards in urban local bodies have sewer networking, but about 93.9 percentage of streets have system of street cleaning. Still there is no dumping place for solid waste in about 21% of wards in ULBs of AP.

Proper drainage arrangement ensures easy carrying-off waste water and liquid waste of the house without any overflow or seepage. A comparison on the percentage of households without having a drainage system during 2012 and 2008-09 all over India shows that during 2012 nearly 49.9 percent rural households and 12.5 percent urban households had no drainage system compared to 56.7 pc rural households and 14.8 pc urban households during 2008-09.