SHILLONG, April 21: The problem of waste management crisis, which continues to plague Jowai, has now drawn further ire, with public now casting aspersions on the government over its alleged inability to address the issue.
Mirchi RJ Nicky J, who has always spoken out against rampant dumping of garbage, said that the situation in Jowai is a total failure of the waste management system in the state as a whole.
Echoing similar views, social activist and an environmentalist, Toki Blah, said that the garbage crisis in Jowai is man-made.
“No one bothered about it until a public hue and cry over uncollected waste started,” he said, adding that the Jowai Municipality, District Administration and JHADC have all turned a blind eye to the problem.
“They scrambled for a solution only when the public outcry became unbearable. What is alarming is that the same might happen in Shillong. It all boils down to lack of foresight and planning,” he said.
Another social activist, Michael Kharsyntiew, said, “If civic problems of this scale cannot be solved for months now, then what is the use of a government?”
He questioned that if states like Sikkim and Telangana can have state-of-the-art waste management systems, then why not Meghalaya, even after 50 years since its statehood.
“The technology and expertise are available in India but the willingness and knowledge implementation seems not to have reached the mighty political rulers and their incompetent advisors,” he said, while fearing that Shillong city may also face the same horror very soon if people do not wake up.
“If we can take hundreds of crores of loan from banks like World Bank and Asian development Bank for road development then why not for such a huge sanitation problem that might affect the environment and health hygiene of our people,” he asked.
