The government of India (GoI) launched Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2014 to improve the prevailing sanitation, hygiene, and waste management state in the country. There has been an increased thrust of the authorities in the field of waste collection and management. The main objective of writing this study is to analyze initiatives in India of municipalities or areas with less than 3 Lakhs populations where exemplary solid waste management practices have been deployed through existing government machinery. The study tries to look into the role played by both government and community and smaller municipal corporations which have set an example and benchmarks for larger urban conglomerates to adopt their intervention model/strategy. Also, the chapter tries to bring out the attribute of a decentralized approach in all the cases which has been the basic reason of success in all the projects. Additionally, this study is an attempt to identify and study the best practices across the country to boost the chances of their replication wherever possible.
TopA. Introduction
The Prime Minister of India, in his highly spirited approach, brought up the issue of sanitation and hygiene in the country from the red fort podium on the 68th Independence Day of India. The responsibility towards waste management including its collection and disposal lies with lowest tier of Government in the country. The municipal corporations and Zilla Parishads have their revenue generation models but despite that almost all these bodies in the country have always been with inadequate funds which brings out the fact that sustainability is the most challenging factor in Waste collection and management initiatives.
From a conventional point of view, waste is defined as items without any value, but when waste is handled meaningfully and scientifically from the origination point, segregation and disposal a lot of value can be derived from the same.
India has grown larger gradually and it has more than 1.27 billion populations at present approximately. After 1991 when India opened up its economy to foreign investments the population in Urban Conglomerates has risen exponentially. Large number of people have already or are continually migrating to city area for better opportunities. Moreover, with increase in colleges and other bodies of higher education has resulted in more migration toward cities. Due to an uncontrolled Urbanisation, lack of proper infrastructure, improvement in living standards the waste generated by cities has increased manifold (Agarwal et al, 2015).
Right now only some part of solid waste generated is disposed through proper treatment. Waste segregation is biggest issue that must be taken up on urgent basis as it is the major challenge towards successful implementation of solid waste management initiatives. Improper disposal of waste not only causes pollution, it affects ground water, and causes diseases and has huge environmental and economic cost (NIUA, 2020).
Urban India contributes nearly 80- 85% of India’s tax revenue. On the other hand, poor sanitation and waste management cost India 5.2% of its GDP. In fact, due to sanitation and hygiene issues India’s GDP lost US $106.7 billion in 2015. As per a World Bank Report (2006) (the cost escalated to current prices), the per capita per annum burden of poor sanitation is estimated to be Rs. 8,700/.
In India, In India, an estimated 62 million tonnes/year of Municipal Solid Waste is currently generated in urban areas which is set to spiral to thrice the amount, that is, 165 million tonnes by 2030 and 436 million tonnes by 2050, leading to amplified public health and environment challenges. India is losing 1,250 hectares of precious land every year to landfill the processed/un- processed municipal solid wastes. In fact, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has estimated that more than 10,000 hectares of valuable urban land is locked up as current dumpsites in India (Pamnani & Mika, 2014).
The country is finding it difficult to cope with large volumes of waste generated by the increasing urban population, which does not only pose a threat to public health at larger level and the environment conservation but is also a significant opportunity for economic gains (Tripathy, 2018). India generates 60 million tons of trash every year; the landfills are overflowing with no territorial space for addition land. Delhi produces 9,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste, which is going to major landfill sites. Three out of the four sites were needed to be been stopped by 2005 to 2009. Mumbai generates 6,500 metric tons of garbage daily out of which 4,500 metric tons is dumped at Deonar dumping ground, scheduled to expire at the end of 2016. The landfills have turned into mountains of trash which is increasing in height day by day (Kumar et al, 2009).
The solid waste generated in an Urban Setting are categorised into following types: -
- 1.
Municipal Solid Waste: - Waste coming out of private homes, commercial establishments and institutions, as well as industrial facilities.
- 2.
Hazardous Wastes like Medical Waste, Corrosive Wastes like chemicals and acids or toxic wastes like pesticides etc.
- 3.
Agricultural Waste
- 4.
Industrial Waste
After large scale funding and focus from the Government with Swachh Bharat Mission and the implementation of CSR policy by Ministry of Corporate affairs in 2014 the involvement of Corporate Sector in the domain has also increased.