25 February 2019
0 Comments
Solid Waste Management is a component of public health and sanitation and it falls within the purview of the State List according to the Constitution of India. Since this activity is nonexclusive, unrivalled & essential, the responsibility for providing the service lies within the public domain. The activity being of local nature is entrusted to the municipal agencies. A majority of Municipal agencies in urban centres spends upto 40% of their budget on Waste Management services depending on population size. This falls approximately in the range of Rs.50-250 per capita per year. In Municipal Corporation of Delhi, 70-85% of the total expenditure on solid waste management was spent on collection, 26.45% on transportation and only 2.7% on disposal[i] . A survey reveals that Nanded, a city in Maharashtra with a population of just 430,000 people, spends more than Rs. 15 crore in collecting and transporting waste to landfills, against a tax collection of only Rs. 75 lakhs.[ii]
Experts believe that this exorbitant cost incurred on waste management in cities, can be reduced to a larger extent if segregation of municipal waste starts at source itself and thereby reduce collection, transportation and disposal cost in Municipal budgets[iii]. While it makes sense for households to segregate their waste as it will reduce Green House Gas emissions to air and groundwater contamination and lesser land requirement of setting landfills but households do not practice this sensible act. Only 10 per cent of all 485 (Urban Local Bodies (UULBs) above 1 lakh population have started segregation of waste at household level (Swatch Survekshan, 2018 report). Due to the mismanagement of waste in Delhi for instance, it is piling up in landfills in the city. All the three existing dumpsites in Delhi—Okhla, Bhalswa and Gazipur—exceeded their capacities many years back and Municipal Corporations have been demanding for more landfill space. Efforts of implementing Waste- to- Energy project by Delhi have gone in vain due to non- availability of high calorific value waste in segregated manner. To overcome these challenges- municipal agencies should operationalise the source segregation of waste on the priority.
The municipal agencies across India have been given power to decide the “user fees” and /or “Spot Fine” for littering and non-segregation by generator under the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Handling Rules, 2016. Some instances of fining residents (@ Rs. 250- 500 per violation) have been tested on pilot basis by Municipal Corporations such as South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) which had led to local impact with some Resident Welfare Associations in South Delhi. There are also examples from other municipal corporations of levying differential user fees charge ( collection charge) where user fees is less to the household segregating waste efficiently over those who are doing it partially. Understandably, innovative by – laws either through fining or incentivisation of households can addresses the problem to some extent only. Ultimately, behavioral change and citizen participation is the key for sustained management of Municipal Solid Waste while also for reducing the huge expenditure from municipal Revenues for providing the waste management services in cities.
[i] Manual on Municipal Solid Waste Management – 2000. Available at http://cpheeo.gov.in
[ii] How Can India's Waste Problem See a Systemic Change?- The Hindu Business Line, November 2016
[iii] https://indianexpress.com/profile/columnist/isher-judge-ahluwalia
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach Jyotsna Goel at jyotsna@cbgaindia.org.