Patricia Mukhim
The title for this article does in anyway cast aspersions on the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB). In fact, the CEO is a dynamic and creative worker and those working with him are doing their best under extremely difficult challenges. The point of this article is to take a hard and realistic look at the garbage generation of our households and the lack of absorption capacity of Marten – our one and only landfill that has to take the load of garbage not just from municipal areas but from as far as Laitkor, Upper Shillong, New Shillong, Mawpat, Umpling and many such areas outside the actual ambit of the Shillong Municipality. Whereas, residents under SMB pay property and other taxes for the maintenance of the Boards employees and for civic governance, those outside the SMB don’t pay for services. Last year the wall at Marten which faces the old Shillong-Guwahati road collapsed due to the sheer weight of the garbage. As a result tonnes of plastics flowed down to the Umiam Lake and was appropriately labeled the “plastic tsunami.”
The High Court of Meghalaya took suo- moto action against this horrific onslaught of garbage. The concerned government agencies were made respondents and the answer given to the court was that the matter was being handled. There is a technical flaw in this process because (a) the court should have made a technical assessment of the capacity of the landfill to absorb any more garbage (b) to hold the government to account for not coming up with more innovative methods of garbage disposal. Time has come for democratizing waste collection so that every Dorbar Shnong manages its own waste by using mini compactors that can turn plastic garbage into reusable pellets and turn bio-degradable or wet waste into manure. The Department has given its answers to the Court saying things are under control. The Court has taken this answer at face value but has not done a physical verification of what actually goes on at Marten; its capacity to handle the current quantum of garbage and what pragmatic action plans the government has to ensure that another mountain of garbage does not land up at the Umiam Lake after a heavy downpour.
First and foremost, unless garbage collection and disposal is decentralized, Marten will collapse because its capacity to tackle garbage is only about one tonne per day while it is being force-fed hundreds of tonnes of garbage from the entire Shillong urban agglomerate. The Dorbar Shnong have been sitting pretty so long as the garbage from their localities are being collected. None of the Dorbars beyond the municipality actually exercise their minds on the future of waste management in their respective localities. The Government which is always wary of being on the wrong side of the Dorbars and is forever placating them is also not challenging them to come up with their action plans. After all, the Dorbar is supposed to be the local governance body. It is their own fault that they have refused to allow the 73rd and 74th Amendments which facilitates better grassroots governance because of the central funding available. The District Councils fear that they will lose hold over the Syiems, the Dorbar Raid and Dorbar Shnong and hence also resist the Panchayati raj system. But because of these power plays at different levels of governance it is the public that suffers. Garbage is mounting everywhere including in rivers and streams and our capacity to deal with it is almost exhausted. Those attempting to clean up the city and they include young enthusiastic school and college students are now becoming cynical because the more they make a conscious effort to collect garbage the more the number of polluters who outnumber the conscientious citizens.
Look at the Golf Links for instance! That’s supposed to be a premier 18-hole golf course created by the British for the recreation of their officers. After the exit of the British the brown and black sahibs came in and played golf. They have the money but not the strict discipline of the British which will not tolerate people walking all over the golf course and throwing their picnic leftovers, plastic wrappers, liquor/beer bottles to be picked up by the self-sacrificing volunteers of Team Jiva & City Hut Dhaba. This Team is seen cleaning up every part of Shillong up to the Umiam Viewpoint. The shamelessness of the people of Shillong and their lack of civic sense makes all their education a meaningless pursuit. Here one must mention some of the dirtiest localities. These are (a) Polo market area all the way up to Demseiniong (b) Nongmynsong (c) the Laitumkhrah market where people come to dump garbage (d) from Golf Links all the way to the Police Guest House (e) areas near the Umshyrpi college (f) the Barapathar areas.
There are areas that generate more garbage than others but no one really cares to exercise their minds as to how that garbage can be tackled. For instance if we visit Iewduh (Bara Bazar) every morning we will see the Syiem of Mylliem’s cleaners taking away all the wet/organic waste in trucks. These trucks again dump all that at Marten and that’s a sizeable quantum of waste. In this case is it not possible for the Agriculture/Horticulture Department to take only the wet waste comprising vegetables, fish scales et al from the markets and convert them into manure? The Government can find space for that conversion in Upper Shillong or some such space. Bethany Society has amply demonstrated that there are ways of making waste a non-stench emitting process if one follows the right methods. This requires an inter-departmental brainstorming instead of thinking in silos. I believe the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority and its various wings have been created mainly to overcome this habit of thinking in silos and to come up with comprehensive solutions to new challenges.
For a very long time the Rangbah Shnong of Shillong and its periphery, have resisted elections to the Shillong Municipal Board. This has hampered civic governance and brought it to a point of collapse. The Urban Affairs Department does not have adequate funds to manage urban governance. For how long can the Government be held captive by a few individuals who want to hold on to power indefinitely and with no accountability whatsoever? A CEO of the SMB cannot take the burden of an elected board which is the practice in the entire country. Why should the Rangbah Shnong and his executive members continue to work pro-bono? Why would they take responsibility to carry out duties free of cost unless there are hidden perks and of course the aura of power? But the time to succumb to such pressures is now over. There is need for complete reforms and modernization of the traditional governance institutions. This is where Meghalaya needs a non-nonsense central and state government to push through these much-needed reforms.
In a democracy people have to speak up and demand the services they have a right to. But our inherent conditioning as a society has been that we do not argue, do not dissent and do not talk to the government as equals. We grovel before it. This conditioning is reinforced in educational institutions where a child with a question is immediately made to shut up and called a trouble maker. Religion is the third reinforcing agent that prevents us from questioning authority. All the above three forces are antagonistic to the growth of democracy. It is ironic that the only voices that are loud and shrill are those of the pressure and interest groups and which invariably do not take up matters of civic concern because they are innately political and are out to capture political space. This is where society loses out; we all lose out..
Solid waste will become Meghalaya’s nightmare sooner than later, so, Mr Chief Minister we want to ask you a few searching questions (a) what has happened to your claim that the cement companies will buy all the plastic waste (b) that a firm from Colorado, USA is coming to turn around the garbage at Marten into power? (c) how long will this take to materialize? (d) lastly, when is your Government going to ban single use plastics in Meghalaya? Please don’t give us the excuse that alternatives are not yet available. People will find alternatives when there are no more single use plastics in the markets. But the source must be attacked. We hope your government will do at least this one good deed which the young people of the state have been campaigning for. In fact we expected you to announce a plastic ban on October 2 last but you let us all down big time!
It has to be mentioned that rural Meghalaya has no waste collection system at all. So where is the Swacchh Bharat money gone? Will the PHE and C&RD department answer?
Mr CM, you are placed in a position to either win or lose the battle against garbage. Which one do you choose and what do we remember you by?