Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Recently I went through a newspaper report wherein the Municipal Committee Bandipora in North Kashmir was accused of dumping the solid waste material near the banks of Wullar lake which is one of the largest fresh water lakes of Asia. When this matter was being discussed at facebook recently, I requested Mian Javaid Hussein the Chief Executive Director (CED) Wullar Lake Conservation & Management Authority (WUCMA) to intervene. I am grateful that CED wrote a detailed letter to Director Local Bodies Kashmir wherein he showed his serious resentment over the issue of illegal garbage dumping. I was surprised after going through the contents of CED’s letter to Director Local Bodies . The WUCMA according to CED’s letter had already provided Rs 82 lakhs to the Municipal Committee Bandipora only two years back for strengthening and developing the required infrastructure for scientific disposal of municipal solid waste. This funding was aimed at preventing any sort of pollution within and along the banks of Wullar Lake. The municipal committee neither spent this money properly nor restrained itself from duping all the filth into Wullar lake. There was no follow-up action on behalf of WUCMA because the post of Chief Executive Director (CED) remained vacant for many months until recently when Government posted an IFS officer to head this environmental and conservation authority.
It is not the case of Bandipora Municipality alone but majority of our municipalities in Jammu & Kashmir state are seen dumping the biodegradable as well non biodegradable waste material in the water bodies. I have already written few articles on this subject and with an aim for further follow-up, I am once again highlighting this issue with some humble suggestions to Dr Nirmal Singh our Deputy Chief Minister who also happens to be J&K’s Urban Development Minister as well.
Udhampur garbage dump
While travelling on Jammu Srinagar highway we might have observed that huge amount of garbage collected from various areas of Udhampur town is thrown into a deep gorge by the Municipal Committee Udhampur just few kilometers outside the town in a forest area on NH 1 . This forest area is being used as garbage dumping site from last several years by the local municipal authorities. As river Tawi flows just below this gorge, all the filth finally enters into it. We must acknowledge the fact that the Tawi has become a garbage dumping site not only around Udhampur but in Jammu city as well. In Kashmir valley right from Anantnag district in South Kashmir to Kupwara or Baramulla in North , all the garbage collected by local town area committees and municipalities is being dumped into water bodies ie fresh water streams , rivers , lakes etc. The Municipal Committee Bhijbehara, Anantnag and Awantipora dumps its garbage near the banks of Jehlum and other water bodies . The “Arpath Kul” which is a fresh water stream flowing through Anantnag town is also used as a garbage dumping site. The Municipal Committee Kulgam has made Vishaw river as its solid waste dumping site due to non availability of garbage dumping site in the town. There are reports that Municipal Committee Sopore also dumps solid waste in Jehlum river which flows through this town. The authorities (municipal and town committees) who are supposed to prosecute the wrongdoers are unfortunately themselves the violators of environmental and other municipal laws which otherwise had to be enforced by these authorities. In this whole scenario how can we expect that people will cooperate with them ? Under these circumstances it is necessary that our Government must adopt some new techniques of Solid Waste Management which are already being experimented in several cities and towns outside J&K by reputed organizations , NGO’s and Non for Profit companies.
Integrated Waste Management
Integrated Waste Management is done through collection, segregation, recycling of bio-degradable and non- bio-degradable wastes by involving people from poorer sections of community. This technique has already been experimented in several cities and towns across India. The Indian Grameen Services (IGS) which is not a Profit company has already taken up several such projects across country. In Indore, Bhopal and 14 other towns of Madhya Pradesh state , the IGS has organised over 2,200 of the city’s most downtrodden members: waste pickers who earn less than Rs 80 a day collecting recyclable scrap for a living. IGS has done so through creation of decentralized scrap purchasing points within waste picker slums, to ensure a fair price and protect waste pickers against exploitative dealings of other scrap dealer (kabadiwallas). This scrap is then processed into recyclable briquettes (gatta) for sale to manufacturing units. IGS has also established micro composting sites to process organic waste into compost. The key objectives of IGS are to establish solid waste management projects starting in neighborhoods and smaller cities in India with low-cost, decentralized systems. The Organisation trains and employs solid waste workers, scavengers and sanitary workers in the process of carrying out solid waste management (SWM). The volunteers of IGS conduct door-to-door collection of waste, secondary collection, composting of bio-degradable waste, and segregation of other waste such as paper, rubber, glass, plastic and metal, and recycle it as much as possible. In addition to public awareness and sensitization of local communities about solid waste management is an important component of this whole process.
The individual households are provided two different garbage collecting vessels. On regular basis the biodegradable waste material is collected in one vessel and another is used for non biodegradable items (plastic , ploythene etc). This garbage is regularly collected in vans with separate chambers. It is taken to the dumping site where it is treated scientifically. The individual households are charged Rs 30 per month by the organization. As of now our municipal authorities are not able to segregate biodegradable and non biodegradable waste material and the same is dumped together which causes severe problems for municipal authorities to manage the same and that is the reason all this material is buried together in landfill sites . The District Administration Kulgam is seriously thinking to adopt an innovate model of Solid Waste Management in Kulgam town. I am sure if these small projects become successful in one or two towns in J&K , the other towns can also adopt the similar techniques of municipal solid waste.
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