The Khasi Hills District Council had passed the Solid Waste Management Act in 2020 but it was notified in the Meghalaya Gazette only in February 2022 and therefore had the force of law a full two years after the Act was passed. The Act defines what solid waste is which is a copy paste of the Solid Waste Management Act of the State and Central Government. Every citizen understands what solid waste is. Essentially solid waste is anything discarded by homes and institutions such as household waste, debris from construction works, hospital waste etc. which is generally termed as “garbage.”
Considering that the Autonomous District Councils claim jurisdiction over rivers and forests, it is a matter of grave concern that they show no inclination to exercise their authority over the conservation of these precious resources. The public residing in areas outside the municipal areas now use rivers as their garbage dump leading to wholesale pollution of rivers. Despite clear laws emanating from the State Pollution Control Board prohibiting the washing of vehicles in rivers, car owners continue to flagrantly violate this law and the Dorbar Shnong are complicit in that they do not exercise any control over such illegal activities. On the contrary some Dorbar Shnong are complicit in this. The question therefore is what is the ambit of the Dorbar Shnong. Who are they answerable to? To the District Council or the State Government which recently came up with a stringent piece of law prohibiting the dumping of garbage into rivers. It is this ambiguity that allows the non-compliant Dorbar Shnong to get away without accountability. The Khasi Hills District Council (KHADC), Executive Committee had constituted the Solid Waste Management Cell in early 2024 with a clear mandate of including civil society organisations involved in environment protection. Not a single meeting has been convened to date. This shows that the KHADC lacks seriousness or the newly elected Council members are not adequately sensitised to the issue. The KHADC Act speaks about Dorbar Shnong creating awareness about this Act and its punitive powers but very few Dorbar Shnong have even called a meeting to discuss the matter. Very few Dorbar Shnong if any have constituted the solid waste management cells within their jurisdiction. This reveals the lack of seriousness with which they take any Act passed by the KHADC.
Under this Act the headmen and Dorbar Shnong are expected to oversee the management of solid waste within their jurisdiction. There is a laundry list of do’s and don’ts for the shnong and elaka including the right to fine polluters. But all this remains on paper only. The shnong outside the Municipality have no sweepers and hence the garbage is thrown by passers-by in streets and drains and in rivers. The garbage then blocks the passage of storm water, thereby leading to flooding in low lying areas. Something is seriously amiss and disjointed in the system and that requires fixing because too many authorities ultimately lead to blame games where none is accountable even while rivers bear the brunt of massive pollution. Who will fix the system?
