GUWAHATI, Feb 28 - In recent years, management of municipal solid waste (MSW) has become a serious environmental issue across the country�s urban landscape and Guwahati city is no exception. Due to increasing population, urbanisation and industrialisation, the quantity of waste accumulated daily is alarming, with the absence of a scientific disposal system aggravating the situation manifold.
A few citizens this correspondent talked to expressed their concern and resentment over the inertia of the municipal authorities on the serious public interest issue.
They pointed out that while the municipal website mentions house-to-house collection of dump, in reality though, the municipality has left out some of the areas from where the dump is not collected regularly.
Bhola Sharma, a grocer of Athgaon area in Guwahati city, said that wastes heaped on the roadside owing to the improper disposal system, create unhealthy and unhygienic conditions for people.
�People in most areas clean their own houses and litter their immediate surroundings, thus causing harm to their neighbours and themselves. Solid waste disposal leads to land pollution if openly dumped, water pollution if dumped in low-lying areas, and air pollution if it is burned,� Sharma said.
Unhealthy waste disposal practices and improper management of waste pose a serious threat to the environment in the form of water, air and soil pollution. However, some solid waste can be recycled or used for generation of power, manufacture of manures for various agricultural activities. But such scientific management of wastes is unheard of in the city.
Antaraag Gohain, a student, while acknowledging that some steps had been taken by the GMC in the last 6-7 years to keep major parts of the city clean by bringing in modern machinery-equipped trucks to collect the dump and recruit workers who clean the road every morning on a daily basis, said that the authorities did not properly execute the system of segregation of dry and wet waste in separate bins, as is the practice in other major cities.
�Dumping all sorts of garbage on one spot releases harmful chemicals that lead to air, water and soil pollution, posing health hazard to the city and its people,� he added.
Making Boragaon a dumping zone is yet another serious threat to the environment because it is very close to the Ramsar site wetland Deepor Beel, known for its rich biodiversity.
When asked, Manojit Bujarbaruah, Executive Engineer, GMC, in charge of Municipal Solid Waste collection, said that it is fatal to dump wastes near the wetland and that a letter had been written to the government for a suitable dumping zone away from water bodies, forests, etc.
�We expect that a suitable plot will be allotted to us within 2020,� he said.
Bujarbaruah added that for Guwahati, there are 90 wards with one NGO each assigned to the job of primary collection and street sweeping within the respective ward. He admitted that out of 90, not every NGO is good enough or doing the work properly but �we collect 60 to 70 per cent of the dump every day, the remaining is collected on alternate days or another day late, but we do collect it.�
On the issue of recycling, the GMC apparently does not have any plan and Bujarbaruah said that they had to first separate the dry and wet waste but the public were not cooperating on that front. �They are the ones to segregate it for us to collect, but that is not happening. Waste like tin, paper, glass is easier to pick but not the single-use plastic and these all add up to the flaws in the process,� he said.
He added that separate bins, i.e., green for wet waste and blue for dry waste, had been set up on the GS Road �but the public seems to be unaware. Awareness programmes are being organised to sensitise them on this crucial aspect of segregation of waste during collection.�
On the plans of the GMC for the future, Bujarbaruah said that the authorities had already engaged and were consulting with IIT Kharagpur and a BPR (Business Process Reengineering) report had been prepared and many techniques would be put in place, once a proper ground for dumping is finalised.
�Other than that, we are constructing two composting plants, one at Bhangagarh and another at Chatribari. After completion, these plants will transform organic waste into manures and thus generate electricity. With the ongoing plans, we hope things will be much better in the coming days,� Bujarbaruah said.