SHILLONG: On Saturday last, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma launched an ambitious programme for a cleaner Shillong but he also remarked that this project must be community-led and that all the young volunteers from schools, colleges and other institutions would be the real drivers of the mission and they were actually the chief guests for the occasion.
Several members of different Dorbar Shnong were present but the movers and shakers of the day’s programme were the Dorbar Shnong of Cleave Colony and Lummawbah which had put in place a proper garbage management system. Cleve Colony works in close collaboration with the Shillong Municipal Board and they own two garbage collection trucks — one for non-biodegradable waste and the other for bio-degradable one. This has helped in segregation of garbage.
Lummawbah Dorbar has one truck which collects bio-degradable waste one day and non-biodegradable waste another day. They have been doing this for over a year.
These initiatives only recently came to the fore but are replicable models which other Dorbar Shnong can emulate.
It takes a proactive district administrator with an ear to the ground to put together this plan for a cleaner Shillong. Matsiewdor War Nongbri, the sharp-shooter of yore, now uses those same skills to silently work with different groups and communities to give a push to the drive for cleaning up Shillong’s major rivers and streams.
Working in close coordination with SMB CEO BS Sohliya and State Pollution Control Board’s W Kharkrang, the trio have managed to bring about a mindset change among the public, although the task for them has just begun.
The slogan Shillong – My Passion has to be internalised and owned by every Shillongite and the message has to percolate to every nook and corner of the city particularly those localities that use the rivers and streams to dump their garbage in — an activity that continues despite stringent warnings.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had stressed on car pooling as a way of reducing traffic jams and air pollution. The present government has already shown the way by stopping the use of plastic water bottles and plastics or styrofoam cups/glasses.
For the first time, Meghalaya saw a chief minister getting into a streamlet to clean it up. Young volunteers who found the CM in action were more than willing to join him. They were heard saying, “Lets join the clean-up drive.” Some who came in their school uniforms regretted it saying, “We should have worn casual wear so we could have joined the clean-up drive.”
But that was just the launch. Such cleaning drives should become a matter of habit and addressing garbage at source is important, hence an efficient garbage collection system.
Nongbri says, “We are ready to cooperate with the localities that have novel ideas of managing waste or of carrying out clean-up drives and will assist them to the extent possible. I believe the passion for a clean Shillong is already there. It only has to be translated into action.”
