Striving for a Bharat that is both Swachh and Sustainable

The emphasis on cleanliness was much necessary and required considering the pervasive dirt and filth that exists in our cities and towns.  Over the past decades, we seem to have lost the ethos of cleanliness, especially in things like sanitation and indiscriminate use of plastic and disposal of it. PM Modi laid special emphasis on the need for sanitation, for creating toilets and for ensuring that waste is properly collected from the roads and cities. To set the tone, he even took a broom in his hand and swept the streets to drive down the message.

And yet, the collection is just one aspect of cleanliness. There is a bigger crisis that stares at India at the moment pertaining to garbage, namely how to dispose of the waste.

In fact, disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a mounting crisis in India. As cities and towns expand and become dense with population, the waste produced by each of them is increasing ever more. The estimated solid waste generation in the country is around 1.43 lakh tonne per day. On an annual basis this waste builds up to a staggering 62 million tonnes of municipal waste. According to estimates by OECD, only about 60% of municipal waste is collected, of which a miniscule 6% is recycled through means like compositing. The rest is dumped in a landfill.

Waste generation and disposal is largely an urban phenomenon. It has been found that cities and towns which have more than 100,000 population contribute to almost 72% of the total municipal waste generated in India. This huge trash generated in the cities is thus disposed of without much thought in landfills in an unhygienic manner, leading to bigger issues like health epidemics and environmental degradation.

The bigger question that seems to be bothering the planners is that as the cities grow further, where will be the space to dump the waste. According to a Task Force set up by the erstwhile Planning Commission to study matter raised the very same concerns in their report Waste to Energy.  One of the pertinent point raised in the report was that, "if the current 62 million tonnes annual generation of MSW continues to be dumped without treatment; it will need 3, 40,000 cubic meter of landfill space everyday (1240 hectare per year). Considering the projected waste generation of 165 million tonnes by 2031, the requirement of land for setting up landfill for 20 years (considering 10 meter high waste pile) could be as high as 66 thousand hectares of precious land, which our country cannot afford to waste.“

To understand the case better let’s take the instance of Mumbai; the city generates around 10,000 MT of garbage daily accounting for almost 6% of the total waste generated in the country. The two dump yards at Deonar and Mulund are almost full to the brim; in fact the garbage heap at Deonar is almost reaching 20 metres equalling a 18-storey tower. The city is running out of space to dump the burgeoning waste. The case with Delhi is no less different, as per a JNU study, 3 of the city's 4 dumps have reached capacity five years ago.

And it is not only about the capacity, there are several health concerns that are associated with unhygienic dumping. Typically in many areas, garbage is openly burnt creating lot of air and ground pollution. Because of high levels of nickel, zinc, arsenic, and others present in the medical waste that also finds its way to the landfill, groundwater resources and soil also get contaminated posing a serious risk to health of people working in these areas or living nearby. World Health Organization (WHO) has observed that 22 types of diseases can be prevented/ controlled by improving the MSW management system.

What is needed is a complete change in the way we perceive and react to garbage. Serious efforts need to be made to cut down on the quantum of the waste generated, while the recycling should be expanded. There are a lot of ways in which waste can be managed, including thermal, biological, chemical and mechanical technologies capable of converting MSW into useful products like compost and energy such as steam, electricity, natural gas and diesel/ ethanol.

While talking about waste management it is hard not be impressed by the example of Sweden that has because of its extensive conversion of MSW to energy has not only run out of garbage it generates but now imports about 700,000 tons of garbage per year to help produce electricity and heating for its cities.

There is also need for an extensive partnership between public and private enterprise in this domain. We need more instances like UTC that recently launched the sustainable urbanization project, 'Citizens for the City' in Bengaluru. The aim of this project is to foster innovation in various spheres including waste-management through means of a Neighbourhood Improvement Partnership Challenge. Through this initiative, local populace is encouraged to find solutions and act on them, with aid and expertise being offered by UTC.

In the end, we need the zeal and fastidiousness of Mahatma Gandhi in our approach to waste; in both collection and disposal. Throughout the years of freedom movement, Bapu would repeatedly emphasise on the need to cleanse our home and our immediate environs. He consistently wrote about cleanliness, equating it to godliness. There are numerous instances of Bapu to prove that he truly practiced what he believed. Like in 1934, he was traveling for a meeting in Coorg. There was an early morning march that had been organised. Just before leaving for the meeting, Bapu visited the room of his staff and supporters and was much disturbed by all the trash lying across the room. He immediately admonished the people for their callousness. “Were you going to leave the place like this? If an army stays at a place, it makes the place tidier than before and then leaves. It is a rule. We should also follow the rule. Whichever place you live in everyday, clean it before leaving. I will not accept any excuses about it. Mind well, I will keep a watch,” was his stern warning. It is that spirit that should drive us, inspire us. And yes, Swachh Bharat is not just about collecting the trash but ensuring the proper disposal of what has been collected too.  There can be no better tribute to Bapu than sustainable disposal of waste that not only makes our nation clean, while ensuring that the environment is not soiled.  This is what true Swachhta is all about and we should strive for that.