Pune Model of Waste Management

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Solid waste is entropy generated by the producers and consumers. Goa generates 1,200-2,000 metric tonne of solid waste per day. Most of this is biodegradable. A significant part can be reutilised. So the solution needs to multiprolinged but simple. First is prevention-by notifying strict packaging rules and by raising taxes on polluting materials like Thermocol (polystyrene foam). This would reduce the solid waste volume by 10-15 per cent. Second - check the littering habit of the people. This would reduce the waste load by another 10 per cent. Third - community based segregation involving townships and housing colonies. This would reduce the waste burden by another 10-15 per cent. Fourth - capture energy and nutrients from biodegradable portion. Lastly involve the stakeholders to collect the reutilised volume. Ultimately the solid waste problem would disappear. Because solid waste has misplaced wealth. None of the expensive solutions offered at present are going to solve the problem of solid waste management in Goa-an area, which has lately become a big business for fly by night operators and dubious commission agents.Goa needs to learn from Solid waste activism in Pune. We need an association like Pune’s Kagad, Kach, Patra Kashtakari Panchyat (KKPKP) established in 1993. But the government and the politicians are more interested in high tech and centralized solutions. Details of the Pune’s successful model are available in ‘The Hindu’ survey of environment 2003, pages 159-163, a report by Mini Shrinivasan. The office bearers of KKPKP can be invited to Goa and could even be engaged in organizing similar association here in major towns. I have foreseen the mounting solid waste management problem in Goa and had already started work to find a solution. This has gone totally unappreciated. I was often told that government wants outside experts for consultancy. Goa has seen what these outside experts do with public funds. I wanted to collect ward wise primary data on solid waste problem. Between 1993-4 to 2000-01. I supervised an academic and scientific research study of Goa’s solid waste management problem by involving the students of Postgraduate diploma in environmental pollution control technology. This course was managed successfully for 8 years at Institute of Safety, occupational health and environment, Altinho, Panaji. We focused at three levels- biodegradable, non biodegradable and hazardous solid waste and delimited the studies to urban/municipal areas, rural areas and industrial estates. My students over their project report period of eight months covered Panaji, Margao, Marmagoa, Ponda, Bicholim and Mapusa. We covered major industrial estates-Corlim, Verna, Kundaim, Bethoda, Honda, Pilerne, Tivim. We prepared environmental management plans and action plans. The elected representatives were briefed about

the findings.

Ms Hafiz Sattar who worked on non biodregrdable solid waste problem in Panaji collected primary information from rag pickers and scrap dealers and we came to the conclusion that unless they are involved in organized way the solid waste management problem of Panaji is beyond a solution. Ms Eru Fernandes prepared a detail plan from Margao municipal area. Our reports and action plans remained on paper because there were high stakes in keeping the problem burning. The civil society, NGOs and activists like Hamal Panchayats Mr Baba Adhav of Pune did not think from narrow angles. The SNDT Womens University conducted a study in 2000-01 on economics of collecting solid waste in Pune. Waste pickers lift 150 MT per day thus saving Rs 1.6 crore for the Pune municipality. This is indirect subsidy of Rs 246 per month provided by each waste picker. They earn Rs 60-75 per day. The Pune waste pickers earn Rs 3.75 lakhs per day. The waste trade in Pune was Rs 18.5 crore in 2000-01. My student Ms Hafiza Sattar had collected similar figures for Panaji. A waste picker can make Rs 50-150 per day by collecting Panaji’s solid waste with some value. But they are neither recognized nor organised.

The NGOs have often backtracked on the issue of stakeholder participation in solid waste management. There needs to be focus, direction, clarity, consistency and sustainability in engaging the urban solid waste collectors. A familiar scene on the footpaths of Panajis Azad maidan every evening is the assembly of the citys solid waste collectors especially those who prefer cellulosic solid waste like paper and cardboard. Our estimates show that at least 11,000 persons are engaged in Goas solid waste collection business. Even if half of them were brought under the Pune KKPKP model then the volume of Goa’s solid waste would be considerably reduced. Unfortunately Government is not collecting information on best solid waste management practices in India (Hyderabad, bangalore, Pune and Surat) but prefers expensive, techno intensive, capital intensive projects. Much before its installation and commissioning I had predicted the uselessness of Goa Medical colleges very expensive plasma incinerator. It was dumped in Goa as an experimental technology to get rid of biomedical, infectious and hazardous medical waste. Now it is out of order and that is precisely the way a culture of managing Goa’s solid waste has been developed.

If Panaji, Margao, Ponda, Mapusa and Marmagoa follow the Pune model - then we can see a definite change in Goa. And if you are not convinced interview the waste collectors near Panaji’s Azad Maidan. If they can help to reduce our waste burden while getting their livelihood-can you think of any other model better than this?