Stakeholders in Guwahati’s waste management

 The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has sounded the alarm bells on growing waste pollution and has called for zero waste initiatives. Addressing legacy dumpsites, managing plastic waste, implementing the principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are the key focus of India’s Swachh Survekshan 2024. The City Report Card of Guwahati under Swachh Survekshan 2023 depict a gloomy picture of waste management in the capital city. Without 100% segregation of waste at source and during door-to-door collection,the city is not going to have a new story to tell for Swachh Survekshan 2024. Data from the annual survey shows that only 3% of waste is segregated at source, 46% of wastes is collected door-to-door while 83% of residential areas and equal percentage of market areas remain dirty. This explains why the city’s national ranking among 446 Urban Local Bodies was 402 which made it one of the dirtiest cities in the country. Blaming the city authorities for the mess is not going to change the situation. The residential as well as commercial spaces are the sources of waste generation and therefore residents, owners and users of commercial spaces are the key stakeholders in city’s waste management. They cannot remain passive participant in waste management and need to play active role.When city residents start segregating waste at source it will also mount pressure on Guwahati Municipal Corporation for putting in place specially designed garbage collecting vans or pull carts with separate compartments for segregated wastes. Introduction of customised motorised vans with separate compartments for dry and wet waste in 10 wards of the city is a laudable initiative but cooperation of residents in these wards is crucial for its sustainability. A low-cost modification of pull carts deployed by NGOs in other wards to facilitate collection of segregated waste until motorised garbage pick-up vans are rolled out can also facilitate waste segregation in every ward. This can happen fast if residents start asking for it through elected representatives of their respective wards. The primary goal of Swachh Survekshans is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities better places to reside in. Poor ranking of the city in successive Swachh Survekshansis reflective of low level of awareness on waste management among different sections of people. The city authorities and the residents acknowledging this problem can bring them closer to work together for adopting best practices in daily waste management. Mawlynnongand Rangsakonavillages in Meghalaya which have earned fame for cleanliness have the key lesson to learn in waste management- cleanliness must be practiced by every single resident every single day. Each ward in the city learning lessons from people in Mawlynnong and Rangsakona and developing its own model of cleanliness through participation of every household, commercial establishments, institutionscan go a long way in improving overall cleanliness of the city. It may sound utopian, given the irresponsible behaviour of a vast majority of city residents in keeping their localities clean, but improved awareness level can motivate people to be committed to the cause and come up with innovative ideas ofreuse and recycling to reduce waste generation. Any such initiative by city residents will be successful only when the GMC puts in an effective waste management system in place including 100% door-to-door collection of segregated waste. Official data shows that the city generates 550 tonnes of solid waste per day (TPD) and just 7.5 tonnes of this volume is processed through bio-methanation and organic waste converter. A 150 TPD capacity compost cum Refuse-Derived Fuel plant to handle 300 TPD wastein two shifts and a60 TPD Bio methanation plant to process wet waste are in the pipeline.The city authorities expediting installation and commissioning of these two proposed plants is essential to prevent the heaps of unprocessed waste growing to a stage when gap between legacy waste and daily waste becomes unmanageable. Construction of flyovers in the city, new bridges over the Brahmaputra at remarkable pace has demolished the perception of the state lacking capacity to execute large projects. Insuch a fast-changingwork environment,delay in execution of the vital waste management projects in the cityis baffling. The Guwahati Development Department undertaking measures for capacity building of the city authorities for planning and executing projects for waste management remains critical not just to improve its rankingin SwachhSurvekshan but also to make it a sustainable city. The UNEP has warned that “waste pollution significantly threatens human well-being, economic prosperity, and the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution.” Every stakeholder in Guwahati city’s waste management realizing the gravity of the situation is essential to create an ecosystem of collaborative initiatives by citizens and city authorities.