Solid waste management system a failure in Varanasi, says report
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VARANASI: With its exceptional
performance in solid waste management and other works, the Pune
Municipal Corporation (PMC) drew the attention of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and was invited to be a member of Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). But, Varanasi Municipal Corporation
(VMC) badly failed on this front. A study conducted by two German
scholars also states that the Pune model of solid waste management is
more sustainable than the one in Varanasi.
The VMC has engaged a private company A2Z in 2009 for solid waste management, whereas PMC has engaged a cooperative of local waste pickers named as SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling) for this purpose in 2007. The solid waste management in Varanasi is completely out of gear due to the tussle started between the company and VMC since 2012. The local authorities admit that the company has stopped waste collection but they are still looking towards the company for restarting the work.
"Though the company has stopped the work, the contract with them is still alive. The company's representatives are arriving tomorrow to hold a meeting," municipal commissioner Umakant Tripathi said on Thursday.
The tussle began in April 2012, when company gave an ultimatum to stop the collection of garbage if the municipal corporation does not pay dues of Rs 3.25 crore to the company. Later, the company stopped work in August 2012 that was started under public-private partnership (PPP) model in 2009. The company undertook door-to-door collection of waste, collected user fees, segregated waste and transportation to the treatment plants for recycling and composting. After the company stopped work, the municipal corporation returned to the old system of waste management. Since then, the city continued to face pathetic condition of sanitation, though a series of meetings were held to streamline the garbage collection.
VMC failed in achieving its objectives of waste management but PMC was invited to UN coalition for its performance in solid waste management. The PMC has been reportedly invited to be a member of the CCAC last year. If the membership is granted, it could have easier access to funds from international agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for projects that mitigate environmental degradation. The CCAC was launched in 2012 to reduce short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). According to the CCAC website, while carbon-dioxide remains in the atmosphere for approximately a century, these pollutants have a relatively shorter lifetime from a few days to a few decades.
Working on a project 'Tracing Back the Choice: Implementation of Primary Collection of Municipal Solid Waste in two Indian Cities', German scholars Judith Wolf and Fabian Schroth found that the Pune model is more sustainable that the Varanasi model of solid waste management. They examined the implementation of primary collection models of solid waste management in the two cities as per the MSW Rules 2000.
According to their study, the Pune model is more sustainable because it integrates the waste pickers, while Varanasi engages a private company. The primary objective of a private company is to generate profit, while a social enterprise usually involves the marginalized sectors of society. In Pune, the private partner employed by the local body is the local SWaCH co-operative that was founded in 2007. The scope of their work includes collection, resource recovery, scrap trade and waste processing. The user fees they collect and the income from the sale of recyclable constitute the earnings of the waste pickers. As SWaCH is a co-operative, the stakeholders are the employees its goal is not only to generate profit but to enhance the livelihood of the waste pickers.
The report says that a private company is usually unwilling to integrate waste pickers in their system. As the waste is now the property of company and as they are eager to earn money out of the by-products of the waste treatment processes and out of the selling of recyclable, they have strong interest in not sharing the waste with the waste picker. This will result in the situation that the waste picker do not get proper access to the waste and lose their livelihood. In Pune, the implementation process was not just execution but policy-making on the local level. With regard to sustainability, the model in Pune is the better one.
"We can't make any such arrangement here," said the municipal commissioner when asked about the possibility to replicate Pune model in Varanasi, which also has a large number of waste pickers. "Since the agreement with the company still exists, it is not possible to go for another option," he said.
PMC claims that there has been no open dumping in the city since June 2010, the situation is just opposite in Varanasi, where one could see unscientific and uncontrolled open dumping of waste in various localities.
The VMC has engaged a private company A2Z in 2009 for solid waste management, whereas PMC has engaged a cooperative of local waste pickers named as SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling) for this purpose in 2007. The solid waste management in Varanasi is completely out of gear due to the tussle started between the company and VMC since 2012. The local authorities admit that the company has stopped waste collection but they are still looking towards the company for restarting the work.
"Though the company has stopped the work, the contract with them is still alive. The company's representatives are arriving tomorrow to hold a meeting," municipal commissioner Umakant Tripathi said on Thursday.
The tussle began in April 2012, when company gave an ultimatum to stop the collection of garbage if the municipal corporation does not pay dues of Rs 3.25 crore to the company. Later, the company stopped work in August 2012 that was started under public-private partnership (PPP) model in 2009. The company undertook door-to-door collection of waste, collected user fees, segregated waste and transportation to the treatment plants for recycling and composting. After the company stopped work, the municipal corporation returned to the old system of waste management. Since then, the city continued to face pathetic condition of sanitation, though a series of meetings were held to streamline the garbage collection.
VMC failed in achieving its objectives of waste management but PMC was invited to UN coalition for its performance in solid waste management. The PMC has been reportedly invited to be a member of the CCAC last year. If the membership is granted, it could have easier access to funds from international agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for projects that mitigate environmental degradation. The CCAC was launched in 2012 to reduce short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). According to the CCAC website, while carbon-dioxide remains in the atmosphere for approximately a century, these pollutants have a relatively shorter lifetime from a few days to a few decades.
Working on a project 'Tracing Back the Choice: Implementation of Primary Collection of Municipal Solid Waste in two Indian Cities', German scholars Judith Wolf and Fabian Schroth found that the Pune model is more sustainable that the Varanasi model of solid waste management. They examined the implementation of primary collection models of solid waste management in the two cities as per the MSW Rules 2000.
According to their study, the Pune model is more sustainable because it integrates the waste pickers, while Varanasi engages a private company. The primary objective of a private company is to generate profit, while a social enterprise usually involves the marginalized sectors of society. In Pune, the private partner employed by the local body is the local SWaCH co-operative that was founded in 2007. The scope of their work includes collection, resource recovery, scrap trade and waste processing. The user fees they collect and the income from the sale of recyclable constitute the earnings of the waste pickers. As SWaCH is a co-operative, the stakeholders are the employees its goal is not only to generate profit but to enhance the livelihood of the waste pickers.
The report says that a private company is usually unwilling to integrate waste pickers in their system. As the waste is now the property of company and as they are eager to earn money out of the by-products of the waste treatment processes and out of the selling of recyclable, they have strong interest in not sharing the waste with the waste picker. This will result in the situation that the waste picker do not get proper access to the waste and lose their livelihood. In Pune, the implementation process was not just execution but policy-making on the local level. With regard to sustainability, the model in Pune is the better one.
"We can't make any such arrangement here," said the municipal commissioner when asked about the possibility to replicate Pune model in Varanasi, which also has a large number of waste pickers. "Since the agreement with the company still exists, it is not possible to go for another option," he said.
PMC claims that there has been no open dumping in the city since June 2010, the situation is just opposite in Varanasi, where one could see unscientific and uncontrolled open dumping of waste in various localities.
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