NEW DELHI: Even as the government’s flagship project ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ has completed three years this October, only about 50 per cent of the municipal wards have been able to implement the door to door collection of waste in the country. Door to door waste collection is one of the major components of the Swachh mission.
Now, concerned over the poor progress, the ministry of Urban affairs has asked the urban local bodies to conduct gap analysis of equipment, vehicles, manpower and the operation and maintenance requirements for effective waste management.
Out of 82,725 wards across the country, door to door waste collection has been achieved in only 44,650 wards so far.
A letter written by the ministry last week said that “In the course of implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission, it is felt that guidance is needed to ULBs to carry out gap analysis of equipment, vehicles, manpower and the operation and maintenance requirements for putting in place proper solid waste management systems.”
The ministry has prepared a template, “Template for Gap analysis of Solid Waste Management Infrastructure and Services in ULB”, to enable urban local bodies to assess these gaps. A senior official said that based on assessment of gap in infrastructure and services, local bodies and States can make necessary action plans and projects to expeditiously achieve the objectives of “Swachh Bharat Mission.
Door to Door waste collection
Total No. of Wards: 82725
No. of wards that achieved door to door waste collection: 44650
Modi government launched the cleanliness mission on 2nd October, 2014 with the target to make the country clean by 2nd October 2019. The mission primarily focuses on constructing individual toilets, community and public toilets, effective implementation of door to door waste collection and solid waste management.
This year, to implement the waste collection effectively on ground level, the ministry of urban affairs shifted its focus to bring about mass- scale behavior change towards source segregation of waste prior to scientific processing. On the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5, the ministry launched a campaign on source segregation of municipal waste.
Municipal bodies were advised to use bins with different colors to segregate waste in every house and shop. Green bins are used for wet waste and Blue bins for dry waste.
Moreover, the government also launched Swachhta hi Sewa campaign to mobilise people to come out and get directly involved with the cleanliness Mission and ministers as well as BJP parliamentarians participated in it in various parts of the country for mass awareness.
“Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is making efforts to strengthen the sanitation and waste management infrastructure in ULBs by providing technical and financial assistance as required. Necessary advisory and guidelines are released from time to time to assist Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to achieve "Swachh Bharat" objectives,” reads the letter.
The template comprises of general information of the city and gap analysis of equipments, vehicles in waste collection and transportation, infrastructure for processing and disposal; and manpower.
The template aims at helping ULBs and States not only to maintain uniformity in stocktaking of mission facilities all over their jurisdiction but also to identify gaps in respect of components such as collection and transportation, processing, disposal, manpower and financial sustainability etc.
Officials said that based on template assessment, ULBs or States can prioritise and take up required measures in bridging the gap in infrastructure and services for achieving the target of 100% scientific solid waste management services in the ULBs.