CHENNAI: When the Union Environment Ministry notified solid waste management (SWM) rules in 2016, the municipal authorities were given one to five years’ time to execute specific measures. The state government, however, has been going slow on implementation of the rules in the absence of a state policy.
Now, with the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department bringing out the state policy on the SWM giving clear directives, municipal authorities feel it will facilitate an expeditious implementation.
The policy documents talks about preparing state action plan in six months, which would draw up short-term, medium-term and long-term action plans for improving the SWM systems and services. It also mandates establishing the SWM Cell in all local bodies and appoint qualified persons as per the national manual on the SWM.
The ultimate objective would be to ensure zero waste by practising the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle and recover in a concerted manner. Extended producers’ liability is also to be insisted on.
“A maximum of 20% waste shall be allowed to go to the landfill for safe disposal,” the document reads.
To make urban local bodies (ULBs) financially sustainable, adequate user fee from time to time may be advised by Commissionerate. The local bodies may also levy adequate taxes to cover the capital investments in the SWM sector. Soft loans may be taken from international funding agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Japan Bank for International Co-operation for meeting part of the capital costs in consultation with the Commissionerate, the policy hinted.
EXECUTION Status
■ The state is ahead of many other states and has been able to achieve 96% efficiency in collection of municipal solid waste and 67% efficiency in door-to-door collection
■ However, almost 90% of the waste is not treated and 98% of municipal solid waste continues to be deposited in open dumps, causing serious problems of public health and environmental degradation
■ Segregation of waste at source is practised only by 28% of waste generators and manual handling of waste is prevalent to the extent of 72%
■ Door-to-door collection has been introduced in most of the municipal authorities. However, 33% of the waste generators continue to throw the waste indiscriminately on the streets, drains and open spaces thus contributing to unsanitary conditions and to causing environmental degradation