Solid waste management in Guwahati

A growing city lacking a modern solid waste management system exposes its residents and visitors to public health hazards, besides making it unliveable. Guwahati, even after getting prominence as a gateway to the Northeast, is yet to have an integrated solid waste management system. The city with about 216 square km area generates about 575 tonnes of solid waste daily but waste collection and dumping are still being carried out in an archaic manner. Primary door-to-door collection and street sweeping are carried out by a Non-Governmental Organization in each of the 31 wards under the jurisdiction of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) for which they collect a user charge of Rs 30 a month from each household. There is no provision for the collection of biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes and even if some households hand over segregated wastes these are mixed while being carried on pull carts or tricycles used by garbage collectors engaged by the NGOs. The NGOs use 64 auto tippers for collecting solid wastes dumped by commercial establishments on city roads. Commercial establishments as well as many residents dump unsegregated wastes along the roadside as large garbage bins are not there in most localities that find a way to dumping sites. Such unscientific practices of dumping and collection of solid wastes speak volumes about the level of awareness of the city residents, owners and employees of commercial establishments, street vendors, NGO workers engaged in the primary collection as well as GMC authorities on solid waste management not being beyond reading the slogan of "keep your city clean" displayed on billboards at various locations. Secondary collection of solid waste involves the deployment of a fleet of compactors and tippers by GMC and 90 per cent of waste is dumped at Boragon dumping site near Deepor Beel. Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 stipulates that every waste generator shall waste and store separately and hand over to Municipal workers or authorised waste pickers. The rules also say that biodegradable wastes should be processed, treated, and disposed of through composting or bio-methanation within the premises as far as possible and residual waste should be handed over to the waste collector. The current practice of dumping waste by generators as well as waste collectors in Guwahati indicates that most residents are not aware of this rule. Even for those, who are aware and also keen to follow the rules of segregating wastes into dry, wet and hazardous wastes at source, the GMC has failed to put in place a robust system of scientific waste collection. The absence of an elected body to run the corporation has widened the gap between the city residents and authorities. The city residents do not have elected representatives in their respective wards to bring issues to the notice of the GMC authorities. The GMC authorities are also not being able to effectively take the campaigns around solid waste management rules vis-à-vis the responsibilities of the residents in absence of elected representatives. Elections to the urban local body were due in 2018 but are yet to be held. Further delay would diminish the role and participation of city residents in initiatives to make the city liveable and sustainable. Solution explored by the GMC authorities is engaging professional consultancy firm for preparation of detailed feasibility reports for collection and transportation of solid waste management, the processing system of fresh solid waste and reclamation of dumping site Boragaon. Consultation with city residents can help GMC authorities as well as consultancy firms to identify the gaps in the solid waste management system in the city and come up with a pragmatic solution. Such solutions are required to be specific to the local conditions of a city and a solution that was proved to be successful in some other city often fails to work in another city. The presence of an elected body would have facilitated the wide-ranging consultation with residents of all wards to understand ward and area-specific issues and their inputs and suggestions could have been incorporated into working out a comprehensive solution for the entire city. As city areas are getting saturated with population, finding a suitable site for dumping solid waste has become a difficult task. Apart from planning waste to energy and waste to compost plants to process collected solid waste, identifying, and relocating some commercial activities presently being carried out away from residential areas to make space for setting up such plants need to be explored. Curbing residential construction around those identified places has become an urgent necessity to put an end to the ad-hoc approach by GMC authorities of shifting dumping sites from one place to another. The cost of stop-gap arrangement for solid waste management will be huge and runs the risk of Guwahati being soon left with no site for dumping heaps of wastes it generates every day. The city desperately needs an urgent, scientific, and smart solution for its solid waste management.