The Hindu : New Delhi News : Creating a zero-waste residential colony

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 04, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Creating a zero-waste residential colony

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 3. If everything goes as planned, the Capital would soon have a sanctuary that it would love to flaunt. Sarita Vihar in South Delhi has been selected for being transformed into a zero-waste residential colony.

And this time round it is not the Government or any official agency that would be doing the work, but it is the residents themselves who have rolled up their sleeves, determined to make a difference.

And while the project may sound impossible in a high-population and high-density area like Sarita Vihar, the process has already begun with the empowering and motivation session of all stakeholders organised by the non-government organisation Toxics Link.

Helping all stakeholders come together to promote an environmentally sustainable decentralised waste management system, Toxics Link has managed to motivate the residents and initiate the process with a sample 60 houses and hope that this time round the message of cleanliness would prove contagious."The objective of the project is to create zero waste residential colony and for this purpose, Toxics Link has brought together registered associations, like Residents' Welfare Associations, Kitchen Gardens Association, Mahila Mandal and other associations operating in different capacity in Sarita Vihar, at a common platform for implementing community based solid waste management programme,'' said Tanya Sengupta of Toxics Link.

"This is for the first time that such a platform has been created to enable the residents of the area to overlook internal differences and encourage teamwork to solve community problems. The municipality has also partnered and demonstrated eagerness to participate in the programme. We are eager that the programme gets underway in the area and that people learn to take care of their own area,'' said the president of Mahila Mandals, Rani Gatani.

Toxics Link has also recently conducted a training workshop on "Waste Segregation and its Importance" for its volunteers at Sarita Vihar including domestic helps, waste contractors and hired waste collectors, to give the people in the area the basic guidelines to start the programme.

"The objective of the workshop was to sensitise participants on the need for segregation at source and to act as motivators for other members of the family, to the neighbours and ultimately to the community at large. The participants were shown through slide projector, the complete cycle from waste generation to disposal at open dumping grounds (popularly known as sanitary landfill sites), located at various corners of the city,'' said Tanya.

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