Almitra H Patel, member of the Supreme Court Committee on Solid Waste Management (SWM), advised city and municipal corporation officials to spend at least one night in villages near landfills to understand the villagers’ problems.
Patel, who played a key role in implementing SWM rules in 2000, spoke at a workshop organised by the Urban Development Department here on Tuesday.
“Garbage was not a problem until the 1960s. Earlier, farmers were taking garbage from the city for agriculture. The problem started when the use of plastic became rampant,” she said.
She alleged that municipal councils and corporations do not care about villages. “It is hard to see, the waste we generate is dumped near someone’s place. Let the officials spend one night in the villages near landfills and then they will understand the plight of those villagers.
“You (officials) also visit villages near landfills to see how the fertile land has been abused due to indiscriminate and unscientific dumping of waste into landfills.
Suggestions
* Change the collection habits.
* Do not put food waste in plastic bags.
* Do not mix dry and wet waste
* Apply stabilising chemicals on waste, so that it will not smell bad
* Local bodies must make quality compost and distribute some of it free to the villagers
* Install GPS software in the trucks and CCTV at the dumpyards to prevent dumping elsewhere