By Naba Bhattacharjee
Urban civic infrastructure and urban governance has not experienced any major improvement in Shillong. In fact, this particular sector witnessed rapid decline due to rising population and congestion without adequate urban planning & infrastructure, which resulted in the widening schism between demand and supply. The situation was no better in other cities and the gravity of the situation led to the launch of JNNURM in 2005 as the largest development mission – post independence, having a financial outlay of 1 lac crore with central contribution to the tune of Rs 50,000 crores; initially covering 63 cities including Shillong. The Mission Statement envisages planned development of Greater Shillong(GSPA) including municipal jurisdiction. The focus is on improving efficiency in urban infrastructure and service delivery mechanism with emphasis on community participation and accountability of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) towards citizen.
The first step of formulating a City Development Plan (CDP) for Shillong was completed proposing a total investment outlay of Rs 2543.92 crores, duly approved by Union Ministry of Urban Development in May 2007. However, most of the projects have been delayed due to delay in preparation of sector wise DPR and snags in implementing the reforms agenda in accordance with the provisions of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992. A few projects under drainage, housing, slum development and urban transport are under different stages of implementation. While water supply sector has been undertaken by PHED, work on solid waste and sewerage sectors shall commence shortly through ADB funding under North Eastern Regional Capital Cities Development Investment Program by Shillong Investment Program Management & Implementation Unit (SIPMIU) of Urban Affairs Department.
As the above activities were on, a noteworthy people’s movement for saving Wah Umkhrah & Umshyrpi was initiated by ICARE with ubiquitous support of DC East Khasi Hills, which led to formation of a broad based Task Force of stake holders comprising of Dorbars, NGO’s, women’s and youth organizations, concerned individuals, institutions etc. The Task Force in course of its deliberations and field study concluded that lack of efficient solid waste & sewerage management are the two major factors responsible for the large scale pollution and degradation of the two rivers. Holistic approach towards a self sustaining system; synergy between different entities at one level and with stake holders at the other, including technical inputs and capacity building of the Dorbars – both within and outside SMB jurisdiction, particularly the people employed by them for waste collection from each household of a locality and in the commercial and market areas, is proposed to be undertaken by the Task Force. The technical committee of the Task Force is giving final shape to a uniform working module of waste management up to the stage of primary collection, which shall be placed to the appropriate authority soon, after being endorsed by the general council of the Task Force.
SIPMIU which is mandated with the task of implementing the solid waste and sewerage infrastructure within GSPA through ADB investment programme, has drawn up a thirty year long and short term solutions upto 2045 for GSPA. It envisages covering a projected population of 14 lakhs generating around 400 MT solid waste daily from the present 150 MT. The first phase has commenced with works for creation of sanitary landfill at Marten while a much bigger land fill and processing plant shall be established over an area of 54 acres at Umsawli village. The programme envisages daily door to door collection of biodegradable items like vegetable waste etc and non-biodegradables or recyclables like plastic, wood, glass, metals etc at frequent intervals. Tipper trucks and compactors shall be used for transportation to compost plant and in next few years to proposed waste to energy plant. Recyclables shall be disposed to recycling units while inert such as stones, bricks will be disposed at landfill site. In order to make this venture successful, SIPMIU shall distribute two garbage bins to every household of Shillong within next six months to ensure separation of the degradable and non biodegradable at the household level. Moreover, mobile garbage bins shall be placed at fifty strategic locations to be emptied into compactor trucks within hours of dumping. This step is aimed at eliminating open and haphazard dumping. Bio medical waste shall also be collected and disposed at the plant located at Marten. It is also learnt that State Department of Health also proposes to install bio medical waste treatment plant at individual source of generation. In the sewerage sector as recommended in the CDP of Shillong, piped sewerage system for every household with facility of treatment in Sewage Treatment Plants including recycling shall also be taken up in phases in a decentralized working mode. GSPA has been demarcated into six zones with each zone having individual treatment plants. A pilot project is expected to come up soon in one of the zone identified at Bivar road behind the present SMB office. Replication in other five zones shall depend on the success of this pilot project and response from each and every household of the localities covered within this zone to avail the facility and willing to “connect” to the main sewer line.
Finally, all the above interventions shall fall flat like many others in the past unless these are made user friendly and self sustaining for which user charges has to be realized. Moreover, capacity building and institutional strengthening of organizations like SMB and MUDA is imperative. Authority and function of each agency has to be clearly defined. Duplication and overlapping has been the bane of civic administration in Shillong with shifting of responsibility to the peril of common man. As the schemes are mandated to cover entire GSPA and not just SMB, institution chosen for service delivery, realization of user charges and ensuring sustainability of each sector has to be chosen carefully. It is easy to install infrastructures but extremely difficult to sustain optimal functional stability since no fund shall be made available for maintenance etc under this mission. And above all support of the stakeholders are of paramount importance. (The writer is an environmentalist, social thinker and member of Task Force).