RAIPUR: A successful model on how a zero-waste management model with 3 R’s — reduction, reuse and recycling — gets converted into resources for profit and becomes sustainable will soon be adopted in the neighbouring country of Nepal.
It was an "awe-inspiring experience" for the delegation of Nepal government. Impressed with the Solid Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) system in north Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur, they decided to replicate the thriving model in their country.
A ten-member team of officials from Nepal led by Kedar Prasad Paneru, joint secretary, ministry of federal affairs and general administration, was on a two-day visit to Ambikapur — a city bestowed with the Swachh Sarvekshan award 2019 after adjudged as the second most cleanest city in the country.
The visitors closely examined the groundwork of the model and visited some SLRM centres. They reviewed sanitary park created in the outskirt of the city where a significant tertiary level waste segregation mechanism, that sort out solid wastes under 150 different verticals, is followed.
Non-segregated waste has a much lower value than the segregated ones. The same non-segregated product selling at Rs 4 per kg can easily fetch Rs 24 if it gets properly segregated at the tertiary level.
“Our team was much enthusiastic and inspired to find how the work on the SLRM gets accomplished in Ambikapur. Certainly, Nepal will not have an issue to follow and execute such a model. We look forward to securing essential support for implementing it in Nepal”, said Paneru.
The visitors were apprised on how the focus was to create a revenue-based model to minimise the gap and gradually it turned “sustainable and productive”.
Around 500 uneducated, urban-poor, unemployed women, who are part of the self-help group (SHGs), deliver crucial roles through the process of 3-R of waste even as Ambikapur witnesses encouraging community participation proactively.
“The cooperation of the people assumes significance. And the USP of the zero waste management model which converts garbage into resources lies on how the system becomes increasingly more sustainable as it moves ahead with better productivity”, said Ambikapur collector Saransh Mittar.
An effective mechanism has been put into place where Viability Gap Funding, which was huge owing to the cost incurred on running this model, has now has become quite negligible. The municipal corporation initially was able to collect only Rs 9 lakh (user-charge Rs 50 per household per month) but the fixed monthly liabilities were around Rs 24 lakh to meet the payment to women workers, their uniforms-safety kits, segregation equipment, various maintenance costs among others.
“The segregation process at tertiary level has to be perfect. The more and better segregation the higher the money return from it”, officials engaged in waste management revealed.