Photo Credits: GARBAGE
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AND THE AWARD GOES TO
* Panaji along with Alappuzha and Mysuru (Mysore) for being rated as one among only three cities, whose garbage collection mechanisms work
* The clean city award instituted by the Centre for Science and Environment will be presented by Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu
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Panaji bagged the clean city award instituted by the Centre for Science and Environment along with Alappuzha in Kerala and Mysuru (Mysore) to be rated as one among only three cities in the country, whose garbage collection mechanisms work.
“Alappuzha, Panaji and Mysuru are three of the cleanest cities in India, with municipal waste management systems that actually work. The three cities will be awarded CSE’s Clean City award by the Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu,” Centre for Science and Environment has said in a statement.
“We wanted to simply know which city is India’s cleanest. We knew that once we found out which is the cleanest, we would also find out what makes it so. This would give us the answers for future policy,” CSE director general Sunita Narain said in a statement.
The research study on solid waste management in Indian cities, titled “Not in my backyard” will be released by M Venkaiah Naidu union minister for urban development.
“As India becomes more literate and politically aware, most cities are encountering stiff resistance when they attempt to dispose of waste in somebody else’s backyard. In Pune, Bengaluru, Panaji, Alleppey and Gurgaon, village communities have been up in arms against the dumping of waste by a neighbouring city. This resistance will continue to grow. Cities are also finding it difficult to secure ‘environmental approval’ for their landfills,” CSE’s deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said in a statement.
The CSE has been conducting studies on various municipalities across the country and their garbage management systems.
Prior to this, the last survey to understand quantity and composition was done over a decade ago. The methodology used to calculate waste generated is to simply extrapolate an assumed quantity estimate with the population.
“There is however no real on-ground data available. In addition, not much information is available on the composition of waste in terms of organic, bio-degradable, or plastic, or the quantum,” the CSE has said.
In 2007, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) published a damning report on the “first generation” of solid waste management and a lack of compliance with MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) Rules. The report found waste was collected in 22 per cent of 56 sampled municipalities, segregation was done in 10 per cent, storage in 17 per cent, transportation using covered trucks was done in 18 per cent of the sampled municipalities and only 11 per cent had waste processing capabilities. The report also found that only six municipalities had landfills—others were dumping in open sites.
