Patricia Mukhim
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) was set up essentially to regulate the behaviour of individuals and the state when it comes to safeguarding the environment. The NGT actually makes the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1986 and its subsequent amendments enforceable. Without the NGT, the EPA is a toothless Act that is violated with impunity as has been seen in the State of Meghalaya where even the definition of forests was re-calibrated to allow a licentious form of coal and limestone mining. Despite the presence of the EPA, in Meghalaya individuals continue to release their latrines into the rivers without any consequences. Attempts by the Urban Affairs Department to curb this obnoxious practice and to persuade people to construct latrines with septic tanks, has proven futile. This is true of Shillong, Jowai and other district headquarters too. The Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) has been giving building permissions without ascertaining how a number of high-rise buildings are managing their sewerage. Then there are individuals who construct a house on land that is just one thousand sq ft in area and let their toilets flow in to the public drains. In a sense, if you are a resident of Meghalaya you can get away with anything. The laws are violated day in and day out because the supervision is so horribly faulty and weak or because the system is ridden with corruption. No one is able to crack the whip on law breakers.
The State Government has been tasked by the NGT to come up with a regulatory Framework for Waste Management and the Compliance Cell of the Forest and Environment Department has come up with the framework as under.
For scientific management of solid waste, plastic waste and bio-medical waste, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Solid Waste Management Rules (SWMR) 2016, the Plastic Waste Management Rules (PWMR) 2016 and the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules (BMWMR) 2016. The SWMR mandates the segregation, collection, processing (reuse, recycle, and productive use) and safe disposal of solid waste. The SWMR also mandates the creation (within a stipulated time line) maintenance and operation of requisite infrastructure such as household colour coded bins, domestic hazardous waste collection centres, trucks/tippers/compactors, waste processing centres and landfills. It is instructive that Meghalaya continues to rely on that overused landfill at Marten which has reached its utility many years ago. One can understand that Government would have a problem to acquire another landfill since no Shnong would want to land up with a Marten. So what’s the solution? A time has come to decentralise the waste disposal system and to have separate zones for a cluster of Shnongs. This would hopefully bring about more responsibility insofar as solid waste management is concerned.
The PWMR mandates segregation, collection, storage, transportation, reuse, processing and disposal (for construction of roads or as refuse derived fuel) of plastic waste. These rules also stipulate standards for plastics to be used for different purposes. These rules mandate registration of producers, recyclers, and manufacturers of plastic products with the State Pollution Control Board. These rules mandate the producers, importers, and brand owners to establish a system for collecting back the plastic waste generated due to their products. These rules also mandate compulsory registration with the concerned local body, of shopkeepers and street vendors who want to provide plastic carry bags dispensing any commodity on payment of plastic waste management fee of Rs 48,000 per annum or Rs 4000 per month. Now this is an interesting regulation and one that we need to pay attention to. Every shop in the city and beyond, today sells potato chips, chocolates, biscuits, paan masala, shampoo sachets et al packed in multi-laminated packaging (MLP) which is the most harmful kind of plastic and is almost impossible to decompose. MLP releases very harmful leachate a dangerous chemical that can pollute groundwater. If the EPA mandates that companies using MLP should be collecting back these wrappers then why do we find them in our drains, rivers, roadsides and in the landfills where they create leachate a harmful chemical pollutant? Is the State Pollution Control Board doing anything to hold the companies responsible? It would be nice to hear of Uncle Chips or Lays saying they will collect all their wastes from Meghalaya or will pay those collecting it for them.
As far as bio-medical waste is concerned, most of us are not even conscious about the manner in which they are disposed. We take it for granted that they are disposed off safely but are we sure?
Interestingly the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) too have a role in carrying out certain provisions of Waste Management Rules. Clauses (e) and (f) of sub-paragraph 3 of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution provide that an ADC shall have powers to make laws with respect to any matter relating to the establishment of village or town committees and their powers, village or town administration, including among others sanitation. The ADCs through the Town Committees and village level institutions are required to comply with relevant provisions of these rules and directions issued by the NGT.
However, over and above the compliance extracted by the NGT the Autonomous Councils have jurisdiction over all rivers in the areas that fall within their jurisdiction which includes the Wah Umkhrah and Umshyrpi. It is learnt that the Councils are now working in tandem with the Water Resources Department and the Pollution Control Board to mitigate the pollution of the above two major rivers that flow into the Umiam Lake. But cleaning up the two rivers is a long drawn exercise which requires a carefully crafted road map. The major pollutants of the two rivers and their tributaries that have today become drains are (i) solid waste disposal into the rivers (2) direct release of sewerage into the rivers (3) washing of vehicles in the rivers.
It is only in Meghalaya that the Dorbar Shnongs have allowed free washing of vehicles in the rivers. This violation of the EPA is most visible in the Umkaliar River where hordes of vehicles are washed on a daily basis thereby releasing all effluents into the river which ultimately lands up in the Umiam Lake where fisher folk get their daily quota of fish which is then sold in the Shillong markets. It is time that the Dorbar Shnong realise that they too have to comply with the NGT Orders since the Dorbar is an offshoot of the Sixth Schedule.
If all the institutions created for public good beginning with the Dorbar Shnong and moving to the next level – the KHADC then the Government and civil societies all work in concert there is no reason why Shillong should be as dirty and polluted as it is today. A word about the business establishments and hotels around the city! They generate more garbage than households on a given day. Are they part of the problem or the solution? How involved are they in the larger idea of a Swachh Bharat or a Swachh Shillong? Unless everyone joins hands and lends their weight to the idea of a Swachh Shillong, nothing will work.
And yes before we forget, what about the MLAs of Shillong and its suburbs? Should they not commit their resources for this common good? Should they not voluntarily be joining the Clean Shillong Campaign? At least in areas of the larger public good partisan politics should take a back seat. It is the onus of each MLA to see that houses within his/her constituency do not discharge their latrines directly into the rivers and streams. MLA funds should be deployed for mobile toilets and in such other schemes that add to the cleanliness and hygiene of the city. When the community is carrying out Clean-up projects across the city, the least that a public representative can do is to join in that service. After all the MLA too is a part of the community and gets his/her votes from that community. Unity indeed is Strength especially when it comes to community service so let’s build on that Strength and Bring in the Change We Want to See!