TURA: With an eye at being the first garbage-free district in the State, South West Garo Hills is all set to take up Integrated and Sustainable Solid & Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) project in the district. In this connection, garbage expert and pioneer in solid & liquid waste management (Garbage to Gold) in India C. Srinivasan from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, was on a three day visit to the district to impart training on SLRM for block and village level functionaries at Ampati and made field visit to some of the pilot villages in the district from 21st to 23rd November, 2018.
Srinivasan, who has been featured on Aamir Khan’s TV Reality Show Satyamev Jayate, is the Project Director of Indian Green Service (IGS) and National Resource Person on SLRM and his concept has been adopted in many Indian cities including Jodhpur, Mumbai and Bangalore.
SLRM project in the district is the initiative of South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Ramkumar S in collaboration with the District Swachh Bharat Mission (G) and 50 villages have been selected for the project in the first phase.
“Understanding how to handle solid and liquid waste that we generate everyday is of paramount importance”, the Deputy Commissioner said and expressed hope and confidence that this project would change the entire system of waste disposal and bring about complete transformation in lives of the people.
“India and many other countries are still struggling over the garbage issue. In solid & liquid waste management, understanding garbage and resource is very important,” Srinivasan said.
According to him, constructing roadside dustbins in India was a big mistake because people dump almost anything and everything into them and they became a public nuisance. Even dead animal carcasses are thrown in the same garbage. “Throwing mixed garbage is a natural fly breeding method. Wherever there is garbage there will be flies and where cow dung is dumped the problem is even more aggravated. Roadside garbage attracts stray dogs, pigs and cows and leads to many other problems including blocked drainage. Blocked drainage and stagnant waters become breeding ground for mosquitoes”, he said.
“We are not bothered about roadside garbage, we don’t care about our drains but we are ready to use unhealthy methods like fogging and all kinds of repellants to get rid of mosquitoes”, Srinivasan said.
“It is very depressing that every year 6.6 lakh children are dying due to lack of sanitation even before they see their first birthday and 60 percent of diseases come from flies and mosquitoes”.
Plastics and other inorganic wastes pose a huge problem and not only humans but animals and birds are affected by plastic menace, he added.
During the two day training programme organized by District Swachh Bharat Mission (G) at Ampati MFC, Srinivasan explained to the participants the concept of converting garbage into a resource with the help of visuals from his project activities
In this project, a 15-day Master Training of Trainers Programme will be conducted for supervisors and workers and will be given certificates before they start the work. For every village five persons, including one supervisor and four workers will be selected. While a supervisor has to be class 10 pass, no qualification is required for the workers. “This project can provide green jobs for the unemployed youths in the villages”, he said. Preference would be given to those in the BPL list
Srinivasan said that there is no need for a big lorry or heavy vehicle in this management. A simple tricycle mounted with a container having two compartments in red and green is used for collecting garbage. However, for South West Garo Hills where there are only 100 or less households per village, even a bicycle can be used. A shed will be constructed in every village for storing inorganic waste and once in a week they will be sent to the collection centre which will be set up in every block.
Two containers will be provided to every household for keeping unwanted organic and inorganic items and there will be two-time collection of waste daily. “If the collection intervals are followed daily they do not become garbage, hence there will be no flies and no stench”. In market areas where waste is generated in bulks collection interval should be every 4 hours and non-vegetarian items like fish wastes can be collected every 3 hours and fed to the ducks. “In this project, nothing is called waste, they are just unwanted materials”.
During the training the participants were also taught the method of segregating wastes, like wrapping eggshells, medical wastes and sanitary pads in different packets respectively before throwing in the dustbins.
After the household wastes are collected they will be segregated according to their type which Srinivasan terms as “source segregation”. Organic wastes like vegetables and banana leaves can be fed to the cattle directly, while fresh food items can go to the piggery. Flowers can be washed, dried, powdered and used for Rangoli, etc. Egg shells are washed, dried, powdered and used in farming. Eggshell powder can be sold at Rs.350 per kg. Citrus peels can be dried, powdered and used as eco-friendly vessel washing powder or toilet/floor cleaner, while empty coconut shells can be used for planting flowers.
The participants were also trained to segregate inorganic or recyclable wastes into different categories. “If the recyclable materials are sold together they fetch a very small price, but if they are segregated and sold they get higher price”.
On the second day of the training Srinivasan gave a demonstration on preparation of Panchagavya, a liquid fertilizer using cow urine and cowdung, making of compost from dry leaves and plantation of banana trees for kitchen waste management.
Srinivasan’s organization will be giving all the required support to the district in the first few years of the project after which it would become self-sustaining. He also went on a field visit to some of the pilot villages including Sonabil, Chiringpara, Malchapara, Bainapara, Katuli, Boldamgre, etc, to assess the requirements according to the population and topography of the village. He was accompanied by EE, PHE & Member Secretary DSBM(G) J.M. Sangma and his team during the visit.