Call for push to source segregation of waste

CHENNAI: Municipal Administration Minister K P Munusamy on Saturday expressed concern over the lack of implementation of source segregation even among the educated strata of society.

Addressing a gathering of local body officials during an International Workshop on Solid Waste Management Policy for Tamil Nadu, organised by the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA) here, Munusamy said, “Despite knowing the importance of source segregation to overcome the mounting garbage crisis, the educated people in the State were still using the same old method they used for decades.” “If they (educated) dispose garbage properly by segregating, it would reduce the on-street handling of solid waste by more than 50 per cent,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Koyel K Mandal, program head, Environmentally Sustainable Finance of IFMR - Centre for Development Finance, said, “Though there is improvement in collection and transportation of municipal solid waste in the State, very little progress has been in processing of waste and its scientific disposal.”

Pitching for privatisation to overcome the crisis, Koyel said, “The government authorities should involve private partners in Integrated Solid Waste Management or integrated processing and disposal on a PPP mode to meet the challenge of proper management of solid waste.”

“Door-to-door collection, street sweeping and transportation to secondary storage depot (and/or Integrated Waste Management at the ward or zone level) should be entrusted to NGOs, RWAs or the informal sector,” Koyel proposed and added that urban local bodies (ULBs) might consider giving those organisations reasonable subsidy to assist them in appointing and financing their own part-time sanitation workers.