GUWAHATI, Sept 15 - For the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), finding land within the territory of Kamrup Metro district for setting up the proposed waste management plants has emerged as a great challenge.
According to a senior official of the GMC, they are planning to set up four waste management plants in four different places of the city.
But, finding suitable spaces for these proposed plants has become a challenge due to various reasons.
�We have surveyed some plots at Chandrapur, Sonapur and Dispur till today to set up the waste management plants, but could not finalise any of them as in some cases, local people raised protest and in some cases, the location of the land is not economically viable,� a senior official of the GMC said, adding, �those local people who are protesting should realise that waste management plant is not a dumping place and there is nothing to worry.�
For the GMC, setting up of waste management plants has become an urgent need as the National Green Tribunal strictly has asked it to close down the Boragaon dumping ground as early as possible.
The official even stated that if the NGT does not give sufficient time to the GMC to set up these waste management plants, then in the coming days, the waste collection in the city may have to be discontinued.
Meanwhile, the GMC has appointed a consultant to draw a roadmap to set up the waste management plants. These plants will be run as per the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules. The official stated that Guwahati produces around 600 MT of waste every day and out of it, 60 per cent is wet waste and 40 per cent is dry waste.
Again, the GMC is also going to implement the recommendations made by the IIT Kharagpur in the �Integrated Waste Management System Report for Guwahati City�.
The official informed that the IIT Kharagpur will soon submit an estimated budget to implement those recommendations, based on which the GMC will submit a proposal to the State government.
In the report, the Civil Engineering department of IIT Kharagpur clearly stated that the GMC spends about 60 to 70 per cent of the Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) fund for the MSW collection system, but they do not have an efficient collection system.
According to the report, thousands of households in five divisions of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation still lag behind when it comes to availing the door-to-door garbage collection facility.
Due to lack of proper knowledge and infrastructure to collect and dispose of waste, not only Guwahati but every city in India also faces the problem of managing solid waste. In order to overcome these difficulties and make the cities sustainable, the Government of India has initiated the �Smart City� programme throughout the country and Guwahati has been selected as one of these cities. Making the city smart is nothing but managing its problems with the help of institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure, the report said.
