The Hindu : MCD plans garbage segregation for 12 wards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

MCD plans garbage segregation for 12 wards

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 18. Beginning April 1, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to begin segregation of garbage into bio-degradable and non-biodegradable categories in 12 wards of the civic body; one in each Zone.

The decision comes following the conclusion of a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-sponsored pilot project on garbage segregation in three colonies of Delhi: Jahangirpuri, Vasant Kunj and Krishna Kunj. It revealed that the residents were willing to pay for garbage collection and its segregation.

With the Capital facing an acute shortage of land for sanitary landfill sites where garbage could be dumped, segregation of garbage, the Director Sanitation Department, Ravi Dass, claimed was the only way to tackle the crisis. The city generates 8,000 metric tonnes of garbage daily. If garbage were not segregated, the Capital would require at least 30 sq. km of land for dumping in the next 20 years.

"That is why we have decided to concentrate on garbage segregation. It would drastically bring down the quantity of garbage to be dumped at the sanitary landfill sites,'' he said. Among the wards selected for this phase of garbage segregation include Nizamuddin in the City Zone, Aaram Bagh in Sadar Paharganj, Rajinder Nagar in Karol Bagh, Defence Colony in Central, Greater Kailash-I in South, Subhash Nagar in West, Ashok Vihar in Rohini, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar in Civil Lines, Mahipalpur in Najafgarh, Preet Vihar in Shahdara (South), Maujpur in Shahdara (North) and Narela in Narela Zone.

Stating that civic bodies of even the developed countries were not successful in more than 50 per cent segregation of garbage, Mr. Dass said this year they had set a modest target of segregating 10 per cent of the garbage generated in the Capital.

As part of the decision, the MCD is now changing the dhalao in all these 12 wards. "All dhalaos are being divided into two compartments: one for the biodegradable and other for he non-biodegradable ones,'' he said. The Corporation has also decided to paint green the trucks carrying biodegradable garbage, he added.

Mr. Dass said while resident welfare associations and non-governmental organisations were being actively involved in segregation of garbage at household level, in several colonies; self-help groups were also being constituted. "The pilot project revealed that people were willing to pay for collection and segregation of garbage,'' he observed.

The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) was already being involved in helping the RWAs, NGOs and self-help groups in segregation of garbage. "Our role would be just of a facilitator to help the residents segregate garbage at source,'' he said. In self-help groups, the civic body was involving unemployed youths, widows and retired safai karamcharis, he said. As part of this, the MCD has also decided to launch a massive public awareness campaign in the Capital.

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