HYDERABAD: Early this year or to be more precise before the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, the corporation distributed two dustbins —one blue and one green—to almost 42 lakh households in the city. The first-of-its-kind initiative was taken up by the Telangana state government with an aim to spread awareness about segregating waste at the source level, the houses.
This was done as part of the Swachch Bharat-Swachch Telangana campaign. “Conducting awareness campaigns regarding the need to segregate waste among people is a continuous process. Sanitary supervisors, jawans and field assistants go around colonies on a regular basis to educate people about this.
The process did not stop with only distribution of dustbins,” informed Ravi Kiran, additional commissioner, Sanitation Wing.
However, the idea doesn’t quite serve the purpose, feels Ghazala Syed, a homemaker located in Kukatpally.
“There are close to 200 flats in our apartment. The GHMC workers come to collect waste every morning,” shared Ghazala. They use both the coloured dustbins in turns, but do not segregate the wet and dry waste. She pointed, “Even if we did, what is the point? It is ultimately mixed up.”
Kusum Suresh, another homemaker in Habsiguda, is not using the dustbins.The GHMC van comes to collect the garbage that is dropped from the second floor. One look into the trolley and it is evident that nothing is segregated.
Ravi Kiran explained that spreading awareness about the campaigns is a time-taking process since it needs to be done across the city. “It has just begun and it will take a while for people to start understanding the importance of segregating. I’m sure not everyone in our households is also doing it. Monitoring has started on a small scale and it will soon be taken up rigorously,” he said.