BERHAMPUR: The blue and green colour bins may be ubiquitous in Silk City, but the primary aim to segregate waste from the source remains unfulfilled.The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) had installed green bins for biodegradable waste and blue bins for non-biodegradable materials in different locations of the city in 2016. But, they have failed the purpose. Instead of waste being segregated at the source, it is being done by the garbage collectors and ragpickers at various transfer stations.
After pumping in crores of rupees into the exercise, the solid waste management plan failed to yield results due to lack of awareness among the residents and lack of maintenance of bins.This apart, the civic body had planned to provide coloured bins to all the households to segregate the wastes. But several residents are yet to get the bins. Though the BeMC claimed that colour-coded dustbins have been provided in several Wards, ground reports say otherwise.
As per traditional practice, the civic body has engaged a private firm for door-to-door garbage collection and around 40 vehicles move around the city with colour-coded bins to collect wastes, but without segregation.
After collecting the waste, the vehicles dump it at various transfer stations and later, the garbage is shifted to dumping yard at Chandiania hills on the outskirts of the city.Municipal officials said despite several requests, residents are not dumping the segregated waste during door-to-door collection. The solid waste management plant at Mohuda here is being constructed and once it functions, the segregation process would be carried out smoothly, they added.
Social worker and senior advocate Bhagaban Sahu said the awareness measures taken by the BeMC are inadequate. Residents are yet to be sensitised about the importance of segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.“We wanted the citizens to actively participate in the garbage separation right at the source, but awareness is lacking,” he added.