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Death by garbage dumping

The death of ten-year-old Susmita Sarki in an avalanche of garbage in Darjeeling must shock the conscience of a nation that does not generally like to admit the environmental consequences of consumerism. Susmita was buried alive when she was apparently trying to salvage something of insignificant value from the trash in Darjeeling's `Valley of Garbage.' West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi paid moving tribute to a "rose-like life" smothered by filth generated by humans. The mountains of waste around towns attract several thousand impoverished rag pickers who sift through them every day with bare hands, exposed to hazardous substances and ignored by those generating the trash. If anyone is to blame for this dangerous situation, it is the 4,300 local bodies distributed across small and medium-sized towns and big cities. Most of these authorities have failed to do their elementary duty of implementing the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, notified by the Central government in September 2000 in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It is not as though there is any ambiguity about what is mandated. The responsibilities of the State governments and pollution control boards are specified in the Rules, and Schedule I lays down a three-year framework for complete compliance.

The out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach to garbage disposal adopted by Darjeeling is typical of most small towns. In the metros and larger cities, municipal waste continues to be dumped in open yards and burnt in violation of the MSW Rules; rag pickers and municipal workers pick through newly arrived trash amid smouldering old garbage; and toxic chemicals leach into the groundwater. The Central Pollution Control Board has found the incidence of respiratory ailments, cell damage, and reduced immunity among municipal workers and rag pickers to be twice as high as for the normal population. India's municipal waste, conservatively estimated to be 100,000 tonnes a day (the four metros together contribute a fifth of this), is a problem that can be solved only through concerted action by the Centre and the States in implementing the MSW Rules and bringing about a culture of humaneness and efficiency. The key strategies to manage waste are well known and incorporated in the Rules: segregation at source, composting of organics, recycling, and for what remains, disposal in scientific landfills. The Susmita tragedy reminds us that there can be absolutely no excuse for local bodies, governments, and pollution control boards to continue to treat the Rules and the statute as a dead letter, with nobody held accountable for a horrific lack of compliance.

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