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Handcarts for door step collection need large bins |
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Biotreating wind-rows of fresh garbage + four weekly heap turnings gives stabilised waste to comply with MSW Rules |
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The frogs stopped singing, on our lovely village road outside Bangalore, because the city began dumping its garbage there, outside the city limits for want of dedicated space for waste management. We found this repeated all over India on a Clean India Campaign led by Exnora�s Late Capt Velu after the Surat plague. INTACH�s Dahanu eco-warriors urged me to file a PIL for hygienic eco-friendly waste-processing, and the results, with the Supreme Court�s full support, have been gratifying. India now has Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, urban accounting reform, standards for composts, and an Inter-Ministerial Task Force Report promoting the combined use of City Compost with chemical fertilizer that has the potential to restore the vitality of India�s soils and transform its agriculture. Rethinking has begun on the unviable and polluting Municipal Waste To Energy technologies that the West has been urging on developing countries, and SAARC has rejected �burn� technologies like RDF for the region. What remains to be done through the PIL is enactment of Eco-Friendly Packaging and Waste Minimisation Rules.
Here, for the benefit of readers, is the practical wisdom I have gained and documented during visits to 136 Indian and 20 foreign cities from 1994 through 2006, to observe their good and bad waste management practices, garbage dumps, composting sites, landfills and waste-water management. One message came through loud and clear: the technology and knowhow for good and affordable waste management is there, best seen in Suryapet, a dust-bin-free and near-zero-garbage-disposal town of 100,000. Only administrative and political will is lacking, to overcome administrative and political indifference and the pervasive corruption in the system at all levels countrywide. The antidote is People Power. The Supreme Court Committee Report is a waste-management bible for all developing countries, and our MSW Rules are a Brahmastra, a powerful weapon that any Indian citizen can use to demand improved performance and accountability. Hopefully this website will make that easier.
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