Unless “Safaigiri” becomes our way of life
Last week we saw praises pouring in from all corners of the world. From the Japanese Prime Minister to Bill Gates, all lauding India’s flagship sanitation scheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. 2nd October 2018 marked the completion of its fourth lap, with a penultimate lap remaining in this five-year sprint towards clean India.
We did not only take up the herculean task of equipping 100 million rural households with toilets and bringing about behavioral change in mindset of over 1.2 billion people but have also implemented it to some extent by building 80 million toilets. However, the lesser known aspect of this mission is managing Solid Liquid Waste, particularly in the urban context. How do we bring about change in the mindset of millions of citizens living in their “Not in my backyard” approach towards waste — where they push all the dirt out of home and into the public space. How do we make the producers of waste responsible for what they generate? How do we deal with problem of landslides, yes! landslides occurring in the mountains of waste at dumping sites where there is no scope for horizontal expansion.
The issue of cleanliness and sanitation goes beyond building of toilets and is in a state of crisis. First, let us talk about liquid waste — 62 billion liters of wastewater is generated in our cities daily with only ~37% of it being treated, the rest flowing into our rivers untreated. The state of liquid waste treatment is clearly far from ideal but the record on treating solid waste is even more dismal. There are three main components when it comes to solid waste management namely — door to door collection, segregation of the waste and scientific processing and disposal. Majority of wards in Haryana have been able to achieve 100% door-to-door waste. However, it is mostly a mix of dry waste and wet organic waste creating sludge, leachate and spreading foul smell. Hardly, 37 per cent of the municipal waste in India gets treated, with the proportion being as low as 17 per cent in Haryana. Thus it is very clear — if the need in rural areas is to sustain the use toilets, in urban areas it is the failure of Solid Liquid Waste management that is thwarting the objective of Swachh Bharat.
In order to improve the condition of solid Liquid waste management — I have been working with the Government of Haryana, with the “Swachh Survekshan Urban Programme” that provides a roadmap for all cities to achieve the highest standards of Solid Liquid Waste Management — followed by an annual survey and ranking of over 4000 cities in India. The toolkit comprehensively covers the 4 key pillars of initiating and sustaining waste management practices while keeping in mind all stakeholders — the Urban Local Bodies, the Sanitation staff and the citizen.
The pillars being — First, managing the cycle of solid liquid waste at each step defined as ‘Service Level Progress’ which includes provisions for 100% door to door collection, source segregation, scientific landfills, processing of wet waste, recycling of dry waste, street sweeping, ICT enabled system for monitoring, Personal protection gears for workers, incorporating informal rag pickers into the chain and finally calling out for mass citizen participation. Second, ensuring quality check of this system of waste management through ‘certifications’ such as ODF + and STAR Rating. Third, incorporating aspects of ‘citizen feedback’ and grievance redressal system. Finally, ‘directly observing’ the palpable change of these activities on the ground.
While tailor made solution and implementation plan for over 70 parameters is being designed for ULB’s across Haryana keeping in mind previous performance, financial resources, manpower optimization, contractual obligations and other such constraints — the key to transforming the landscape of Solid Liquid Management I believe will come out of the stakeholder approach to solving this issue. Irrespective of the processes being defined it is the people who are going to define the success of this programme.
ULB’s need to focus on — capacity building of staff to plan and implement sanitation programmes, they need to equip their staff with smart and low cost technology to implement effective, equitable and efficient service delivery at the same time monitor it. They also need to focus on generating avenues of financial sustainability to run operational costs at least.
For our sanitation staff it is past time that we address their needs — both in terms of safety and dignity. Providing personal protection equipment’s, medical benefits, padded seats for vehicles might deal with the occupational hazards of their job but the other more important aspect is reinstating their low self-esteem — where they look at themselves as “Kachrawala” instead of foot soldiers of “Safai” in the city. Recognizing and integrating the socially, politically and economically marginalized informal sector in waste management too can work wonders.
And finally, the ULB administration and Sanitary workers alone cannot bring about any change unless lakhs of citizens residing in our cities take responsibility of tons of waste that they generate every single day. Unless cleanliness becomes a ‘Jan Andolan’ there can be no ‘Sach’ in our mission towards ‘Swachh’.
Do you ever think about putting in the banana peel in a separate dustbin than where you throw the plastic bags and boxes from your latest swiggy delivery? Do you ever think of what happens to the waste once Ghanshyam bhaiya picks it up every morning from outside your house? Do you still throw away the remnants of the apple that you’ve eaten in your car on the street — because it is so inconvenient to carry it in your bag? Then, clearly the clarion calls for a ‘Swachh Bharat” would continue to ring hollow in our ears — unless “Safaigiri” becomes our way of life
