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Front Page >> Features > Story

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Municipal Solid Waste Management - Political & Administrative Dimensions
By Irabanta Oinam
The first step in waste management is to stop calling it ‘waste’.

More than 60% of the diseases originate directly or indirectly from waste. In the past when man had not much of material demand, garbage production was within the limit of natural care. But things are changing. So that the present solid waste can not be left for natural care. We need an intervention to solve the ever increasing volume of degradable and non-degradable waste materials piling on road side & river bank of Imphal. Imphal is not a big city. The volume of solid waste produced in a day is about 70 to 80 metric tonnes. But we see a lot of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) more than the rate of per day production. It is due to neglect of every day clearance.

Mexico method of solid waste clearance:

The best method of MSW clearance is the Mexico method or Bell system. This is largely accepted in the developing countries. Government should pass an Act & Rule for improving SWM system to the local masses such as not to allow any type of solid waste dumping in the open public places. If somebody does not obey the instruction, fine in the form of punishment shall be imposed strictly. For this particular vigil, city police will be responsible. The Act and Rule shall clearly mention that, everybody should keep their own waste by keeping in a box or bag till the municipal solid waste clearance vehicle come everyday in a particular time period along with a bell to know the waste clearance vehicle arrives. The time to come for a particular place shall be notified for public understanding. When the vehicle arrived the people themselves should bring the bag(s) containing waste from their store for dumping in the municipal clearance vehicle.

In case of movable population, Government should instruct to keep their waste in particular bills by packing their waste in a bag. The bags shall have the level and name of the user for returning the bag to the user again for the next day and so on. For street goers Government should provide street dust bills. As we look at the angle of health and environment, no solid waste shall be piled open in the public places. For this type of solid waste clearance save time, manpower, economy by cutting expenditure, reduce health hazard and limited vehicle can serve in the large areas within the limited time. So we should make a culture of solid waste management first. The most important is the culture and attitude of people to solve any problem. Once we set up this culture it will not be hard for us to face the problem in the years to come. Thus we should frame a policy by involving people to take part responsibly for solving the problem of urban solid waste. Policy without the responsibility of people’s involvement and looking to solve by the Government alone will be a meaningless policy/program.

Trends & working framework:

As you know, solid wastes have become a major problem for municipalities in Manipur. Municipal Council and Municipal Administration of state Government have time and again, identified solid waste as a major problem that has reaching consequence requiring drastic measures. We can observe three key trends with respect to solid waste –

1. Increase in sheer volume of waste generated by urban residents as well as movable population added every day from the rural and other parts of the country;
2. Change in the quality or make-up of waste generated; and
3. The disposal method of waste collected (when we put a wrong (unscientific) disposal method, we will not get any disposal site.

We need to adopt a working framework for solid waste management. This covers the social, economic, technology, political and administrative dimensions. It is highly acceptable throughout the world.
=> The social dimension of SWM involves waste minimization;
=> The economic dimension of SWM involves waste recycling;
=> The technology dimension of SWM involves waste disposal; and
=> The political and administrative dimensions cuts across all the three issues of minimization, recycling and disposal.

But Solid Waste Management (SWM) is not an isolated phenomenon. It is particularly an urban issue that is closely related, directly or indirectly, with a number of issues such as
=> Urban lifestyles,
=> Resource consumption patterns,
=> Jobs and income levels, and
=> Other socio-economic and cultural issues.

All these issues have to be brought together on a common platform in order to ensure a long-term solution to urban waste. There is a whole culture of waste management that needs to be put in place - from the micro-level of household and neighborhood to the macro levels of city, and State. The general assumption of State Government is that SWM should be done at the city-level. As a result, solutions tried out have been referring to the final stage of its cycle.

In the case of urban waste, it means focusing on waste disposal rather than waste recycling or waste minimization. In attempting piece-meal and ad hoc solutions to waste problems, instead of taking a long-term holistic approach we may not solve the complaints of public regarding this matter. Here we also need to take into confidence the public to Government administration through awareness by using both formal & non-formal type education. In the formal education, we need to include about the solid waste management problems & remedies to the school syllabus. This only may not be solved the problem, so that we need a non-formal public awareness campaign by involving both print & electronic medias. Here the role of Government and political will are accountable.

Why we are not getting scientific SW disposal site? :

The first factor is the lack of confidence by the local people what Government will do. It is due to past mistakes of successive Government’s development programs and policies. As you know many of our promising NGOs who are trying to convert solid waste into organic compost or to take up sanitary land filling get disposal sites easily. It shows that the local people have confidence in the technical framework to be done and believe it will be sure.

Thus, they allow them for utilizing the land for the same purpose. Understanding with the public by ensuring that program & proposed technical works of the said project will be done in the right way without habi-zabi is very much important.

The SWM Matrix:

In reality there are a number of critical actions that need to be taken at the levels of household, neighborhood, city and state. Action to be taken can have social, technology, economic, political or administrative dimensions. It is important that the right decision/action be taken/carried out at the right level. Thus, actions at the household level are predominantly social, technology and economic in nature. Similarly action to be taken at the city and State level are predominantly economic, political and administrative in nature. The following matrix was ‘field-tested’1 during a training session in SWM for city Government officials of Nepal, China, Philippines and Japan allowing them to identify weak areas - the lacks, gaps and mismatches, in their policies, programs and projects that links the dimensions of decision-making (social, technology, economic, political and administrative) with the levels of decision-making (household, neighborhood, city, and State) - helps in categorizing the decisions, action and related activities to be undertaken. (Source: Proceeding of the training)

Conclusions:

Four key issues emerge from the above discussion -

1. The SWM Matrix

The advantage of the SWM matrix of scales and themes is its essential simplicity - allowing for easy understanding and its adoption to various scales, and socio-political and cultural situations. Gaps in existing SWM programs and initiatives can also be identified. The matrix helps in understanding the inter-relationships and inter-connectedness of the various issues involved.

2. Life-cycle

There is a gradual shift from ‘end-of pipe’ solutions that focus on waste disposal, to a source based approach that is aimed at ‘life-cycle’ analysis. This places the responsibility not only on households, but also in manufacturers and retail businesses. Greater awareness at the local and community level has forced businesses and industries to take a more environmentally friendly approach to their activities, including better management of the wastes that they produce, using a more holistic life-cycle assessment (LCA is a systematic set of procedures for compiling and examining the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the associated environmental impacts directly attributable to the functioning of a product or service system throughout its life cycle.).

3. Community-Local Government partnership

As a consequence of the above two points is the realization that collection and processing of waste is not the exclusive domain of the local government - calling for a more comprehensive partnership between the community and local Governments where each actor has a role to play towards waste minimization, waste recycling and waste disposal.

4. SWM and the Larger Urban Environment

As mentioned above, SWM is not an isolated, municipal problem that has to be ‘done’ by the local government. There is a need for a more comprehensive package of measures. Critical to this approach is to integrate SWM activities within the larger process of urban environmental management.

Learn from the past and look for new and improved approaches to municipal solid waste management. Ensure that solid waste management decisions integrate technology, economic, environmental and social considerations for the benefit of present and future generations.

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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