| Issues Of Importance: |
SWM in Bangalore has definitely improved in areas of collection and transportation. However, waste processing and disposal is still a pressing problem to be dealt with. The informal network is very active in areas of recycling as this forms their only livelihood.However,there are various issues or constraints that have to be tackled to achieve significant strides in waste management.
The issues that have to be addressed are summed up as follows:
Exploring Methods to Improve the System:
In order to improve the current solid waste
management services it is essential to explore the various
constraints or issues and to arrive at a suitable solution.
Waste management involves a whole community and
sufficient actions have to be taken to realise its full
potentiality. Some of the issues that vie for attention are
community participation, human resource development,
promotingGIS-GPSsystemsto obtain reliable data on waste
and legal mandates.
Community participation:
Community participation is of
paramount importance for a successful waste management system and requires considerable planning and management.
First and foremost municipalities should enhance their
understanding of what participation is and what it involves.
It is essential that they develop an understanding of the
objectives of participation, the potential for community
participation (when participation can take place, in what form,
at what stage of the service delivery process) and what makes
participation more sustainable. Capacity building thus
requires a more detailed understanding of the needs of the
public, the extent of awareness among the public, the
livelihoods and characteristics of the poor. Municipalities can develop certain strategies to
build capacity for community participation.
A series of measures can be taken to bring about a
change in public behaviour through public awareness
programs (The Expert Committee, 2000). They are:
(i) Promote "reduce, reuse and recycle" (RRR) of wastes
among manufacturers and buyers.
(ii) Promote public participation in SWM systems adopted.
Citizens should be made aware that wastes are not to be
thrown on the streets, drains, water bodies, open spaces
and also prohibit them from littering and open defecation.
They should participate in primary collection of
wastes, store wet and dry wastes separately at source
and litterbins on roads and public places.
(iii) Provide information hotline.
(iv) Public education through group meetings, workshops,
exhibitions, lecture series, panel discussions etc.
(v) Mass education through print media, use of cable TV/
radio/websites, use of cinema halls, street plays, posters,
pamphlets, hoarding, primary school curriculum to
cover the subject, resident associations etc.
Human resource development:
Human resource
developmentis very essential for internal capacity building
for any organisation. Training motivation, incentives for
outstandingservices and disincentives for those who fail to
perform are essential for human resources development.
Knowledge of new technology and methods coupled with
training at all levels is necessart. Also, the corporators or
elected members should be given appropriate orientation
towards the need for modernisation of solid waste
management system. Another aspect, which has immense potential but
is often overlooked, is harnessing waste pickers or rag
pickers in the city. This is the informal sector, which
accounts for 15% of the waste retrieved from streets and
dumpsites for recycling purposes. Bangalore has an
estimated 35,000 waste pickers, mostly women and children,
who pick out discarded waste materials for a livelihood.
Ragpickers around the city should be identified and
encouraged to participate in waste collection. They can be
elevated to 'waste collectors' and given badges or some
identification documents so as to give some dignity to this
much-neglected class. Ragpickers can be trained in door to
door collection of wastes and in segregation of wet and dry
waste. By imposing a monthly 'garbage' fee on the local
residents, the waste pickers could generate an income. They
can also earn an additional income by selling compost to the
,nearby farmers, and plastic and metals to the recycling
industries. Since the number of pourakarmikas are not enough
to handle the city's waste such training to waste pickers not
only lightens the waste collection load but also rehabilitate
the wastepickers.
GIS-GPS system for solid waste management system:
Good
municipal solid waste management practices requires
collection of critical information which is not just for
keeping the records up to date but used effectively for
taking corrective measures as well as proper planningfor the
future.Thereis also a need for integrationand assimilationof
information from various levels of jurisdiction.
GPS-GIS systems can be powerful tools that can
revolutionise the waste management systems in Bangalore.A management information system is required to manage
large amount of spatial and attribute data related to the
wards and generate reports (daily, weekly etc) at various
levels levels (city,zone, range etc.) with details of the waste,
typesof vehiclesetc. In Bangalore, trucksare the only means
of removing garbage and other waste materials from the city.
These vehicles perform multiple trips in a day and it is
essential to monitor and track these trucks to improve
efficiency. In this regard, global positioning system (GPS)
wouldbe helpful and cost effective.It also helps in optimising
truck routes there by increasing the efficiencyof the transport
mechanism. Analysis of spatial data i.e. landuse and land
cover pattern, transport network, collection network etc.,
along with information related to quantity related to quantity
and quality of wastes (through GIS) enable the authorities
involved in waste management to come out with feasible
options3.
These tools have been selected because 80% of
information used by the health official has spatial
components (city,zone, range and health ward level). These
systems can be installed in BMP and zonal offices and
establish monitoring centers in Bangalore. Training can be
imparted to personnel in handling and updating the data.GIS System for Waste Management in IISc Campus :
A GIS system has been developed for Indian
Instituteof Science campus. The campus limits are enclosed
within 13.01055° to 13.02083°latitude and 77.55944° to
77.57388° longitude. IISc is located in the northern part of
Bangalore City having lush vegetation and campus has green
canopy of trees covering the buildings. The main campus
coversaround 150 hectares. IIS chas 40 departments,2 banks,
1 school, 4 canteens, 1 restaurant, 4 guest houses, 400
faculty members, 800 supporting staff, 1500 students and
450 residential quarters representing a typical urban
community.The institute generates all kinds of waste arising
from residential, commercial, education, open area and
vegetative area.
Waste bins of different types are distributed around
the campus. Collection of waste is done by one truck, one
tractor and mini pick up trucks. The frequency of collection is 1 to 3 days. Collected wastes are dumped or burnt at
common dumping site about 12kms away from IISc. Regular
street sweeping and roadside garden trimmings are done
and wastes are dumped in bins. Transferring of waste to
vehicles is done manually. The route followed is currently
one convenient to the driver rather than from the collection
point of view or from type and composition of wastes. All
sensitive bins are not given priority in this method of collection.Thereis a need to evolve an optimal route evolved on the basis of waste composition and quantities generated
in each bin.
Integrating spatial information along with
corresponding attribute information was part of the study.
Mapinfo 5.5 was used to create vector layers from the
Survey of India (SOl) toposheets of scale 1:1000. Digitised
vector layers include boundary, road network, building
distribution, distribution of bins, open dumping sites, land use and land cover, optimal routing etc.
Figure 1 represents
the land use of IISc campus. Figure 2 depicts the proportion of waste generated in each
zone. Figure 3 shows locations where wastes are collected. Figure 4 illustrates
the optimal route for collection vehicle.
Studies were carried out at active bin sites. Theoretically provided optimal routing may not be apt, because of local conditions. Preference is given to collection of organic matter in order to avoid unaesthetic appearance, foul smell and animal problems. Optimal routing as shown in Figure 4 is arrived at, in such a way that zones with more domestic wastes are handled on priority while covering all zones and avoiding overlap. The corresponding micro routing for locations is felt as it is, considering experience of collection workers.
Legal Mandates:
There are no environmental laws in the Kamataka Municipal Corporation Acts specifically pertaining
to SWM. Solid waste management practices can never reach
the desired level of efficiency until the public participates
and discharges its obligation religiously. In order to improve
solid management practices in urban areas it is necessary to
incorporate suitable provisions in the state law to ensure
public participation and providing for minimum level of solid
waste management. Some of the proposed legal provisions
are as follows:
