The introduction of two bills on waste management in the assembly places responsibility on individuals for the waste they generate. Imprisonment and fines are attempts to clean up God’s Own Country

In February 2, the Kerala Legislative Assembly introduced the Kerala Panchayat Raj and Kerala Municipality Amendment Bills, 2024. The bills emphasise the government’s commitment to fostering private sector involvement in waste management.

Minister of Local Self-Government MB Rajesh, the Bills’ proponent, said that the legislation places responsibility on individuals for the waste they generate. The Bills propose imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of Rs 50,000 for those who discard waste in public places and there is also a provision to impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on the spot by the local secretary against the dumping of garbage. Rajesh urged local bodies to transfer waived fees to Haritha Karma Sena, and said that the user fee paid to it could not be scrapped. Altering the user fee for commercial establishments could be considered based on the quantity of waste generated.

Haritha Karma Sena is a system formed to solve the acute waste problem of the state in a decentralised manner. Haritha Karma Senas are working with the objective of ensuring employment and income through the collection and treatment of waste materials and are run with the help of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board. These Senas are playing a huge role in achieving cleanliness in the state as part of the “Malinyamuk­tham Navakeralam” campaign.

This system, initiated by panchayats and municipal corporations, helps in doorstep collection of waste from houses and institutions by purchasing the user fee fixed by the local body based on the government order. They provide services on a monthly basis for non-organic waste collection sites and daily for organic ones.

As part of the Haritha Kerala Mission project implemented in October 2017, the formation of Harita Karma Sena was held in the local bodies of Kerala. Activities are carried out under the joint guidance and cooperation of various development missions, local self-government bodies and various government and private agencies in the state. 

Currently, 32,440 Haritha Karma Senas under Kudumbashree are working for a garbage-free Kerala in collaboration with local self-governments, Suchitwa Mission, the health department and Clean Kerala Company. This group of women is making significant social progress by working at the forefront in collecting and processing the garbage that is dumped in water bodies and on the streets, causing environmental problems.

Suchitwa Mission provides technical assistance for sanitation activities, Kudumbashree has poverty alleviation and women empowerment as its main theme and Clean Kerala Company works to ensure the scientific treatment of waste. Meanwhile, the Employment Guarantee Mission helps in the construction of source waste treatment facilities.

In the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, in sub-section (1) of Section 189, after the words “welfare programmes”, the words and symbol “waste management” are inserted. 

In addition, no person shall organise an event or gathering of more than 100 persons at any unlicensed place without intimating the panchayat at least three working days in advance. Such an organiser shall ensure segregation of waste at source and handing it to the waste collector or agency as specified by the panchayat on fees fixed by it. Such fees shall not be less than the actual rate of cost for the management of such waste and it shall be paid in advance as directed by the panchayat. 

In addition, every member shall keenly observe the activity of collection and removal of garbage and other waste from the area of the constituency he represents. Failure or negligence in this matter shall be brought to the notice of the secretary who shall take urgent remedial measures. 

Other sections of the Act say that no person shall throw or deposit waste, rubbish or excreta in a water course, water body or water source or allow or cause to flow water from any latrine or allow waste water to flow into it, or pollute the water in any other way, or engage, depute, compel, or instigate any person to do such activity. Whoever commits an offence shall, on conviction, be punishable with fine which shall not be less than Rs 10,000, but not exceeding Rs 50,000 and imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months, but not exceeding one year. 

—By Adarsh Kumar and India Legal Bureau

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court, comprising Justice SV Bhatti and Justice Basant Nalaji, recently came down heavily on the Kerala government for neglecting environmental issues. The Bench observed: “The State of Kerala claims to be a Number 1 in literacy in the Centre. This Bench would like to know whether the State of Kerala would like to be Number 1 in protecting the environment and implementing Solid Waste Management Handling Rules. This cannot be accomplished by a parcel of accomplishment either in a corporation or a Municipality or a Grama Panchayat. There are enough number of water bodies in the State of Kerala and no one is listening to their plight. All water bodies are getting converted as dump sites. This possibility can be prevented when all the local authorities concerned with protecting the water bodies are issued proper directions.” The bench said: “After looking at the stage and manner of implementation of Solid Waste Management and Handling Rules, we have posed a question to the learned Advocate General on the necessity to have a holistic implementation of these Rules in the State of Kerala.”

The Court considered issuing directions to be carried out by the officers of the state and persons entrusted with the functions and duties by the environmental laws, Environmental Protection Act, read with rules, and Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The Bench said in its order that the suo motu initiative of the Court must not be treated as a publicity interest litigation or a prosecution interest litigation initiated by the Court, and being a constitutional Court, it is the custodian and the guardian of the rights of the citizens under the Constitution and also protects the rights assured to the citizens under the Environmental Protection Act along with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. It said that the right to clean air, water and pollution-free environment are basic human rights, and with incidents happening in the immediate past, the Court has noticed these rights of citizens, particularly in the city of Ernakulam. Therefore, the suo motu petition addresses these problems, it added.

On March 13, the district collector placed on record the report of the committee constituted by the Court on March 10, 2023. The report describes the lamentable situation in which the site is termed as a facility, claiming to discharge the statutory standards set by Solid Waste Management and Handling Rules, 2016.  After a detailed discussion on the report with the additional chief secretary and the district collector, the High Court said in its March 14 order:

* The Secretary, Cochin Municipal Corporation, is directed to place before the Court the chronology of the consideration of passing over the responsibility of managing this facility by a third party agency, the mode and manner in which the decisions are taken shall also be incorporated in the said chronology. The Secretary shall place before the Court the contract under which the free handover of responsibility is given to a third party. These details are necessitated without concluding on this aspect, the prosecution if warranted the starting point of prosecution and also the persons who are responsible for the present state of affairs.

* The Secretary is directed to place before the Court the payments made by the Cochin Municipal Corporation under the head of collection, transportation, handing over, treatment, etc., for the past seven years to the contractors or the staff under any head.

* The District Collector, referring to the latest information, makes a statement to the Court that 90% to 95% of fires at different places has been put out. However, on account of continuous simmering and raising temperatures in the materials, the sporadic occasioning of fires is taken care of and within the outer limit of two hours doused.

* The High Court is of the view that the Court and the citizens of Cochin place on record their appreciations for discharging a herculean task of putting out the fire at the site at this time of the year by the personnel of the fire department.

* We are conscious that either the failure to control the fire or allowing the fire to spread to the neighbourhood would have led to unimaginable consequences. We record our recognition, satisfaction, and appreciation to the Personnel of the Fire Department for all their efforts. We also record the same appreciation for the contribution of the Civil Defence Volunteers in putting out the fire.

The Uttarakhand High Court in October last year had directed commissioner, Kumaon, and commissioner, Garhwal, to hit the ground with the respective district magistrates and make ground surveys, town by town and village by village, to ensure that solid waste management is implemented in true letter and spirit.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice RC Khulbe had further directed the registrar (judicial) of the High Court to create an e-mail id, namely solidwastecomplaint@uk.gov.in, which shall be open to the public at large to send their complaints regarding solid waste collected and not removed in any part of the state, be it within municipal limits, or in rural/forest areas. On the e-mail id, only complaints regarding solid waste, of whatever kind, would be entertained. 

The High Court further said in its order: 

• Along with the complaint, the complainant should also upload the photographs to show the collection/non disposal of solid waste, clearly identifying its location. The complainant should clearly provide his/her identity and contact details. The complaints, which are received, shall be perused by the Registrar (Judicial) after 05:00 PM every day.
• These complaints shall be printed out, provided they relate to issues regarding solid waste in the state, and not otherwise. The complaints, as received, shall also be forwarded to the respective Commissioners of Kumaon and Garhwal electronically on their respective e-mail IDs, depending on whether the complaint relates to Kumaon or Garhwal region.
• It shall be the responsibility of the respective Commissioners to then take action on the complaints. The Commissioners shall revert within two working days of the complaints being forwarded by the Registrar (Judicial) to inform as to what steps have been taken in respect of the complaints so received.”
• It is further directed by the High Court to the State to circulate the aforesaid Email ID in the entire State by publishing the same in daily newspapers and local Doordarshan channels, and encouraging the people to log their complaints with necessary particulars. All the District Magistrates are also directed to ensure the circulation of the said E-mail ID within their respective districts.
• A tabulation of the complaints as well as the response received in regard thereto from the respective Commissioners, shall be placed before the Court by the Registrar (Judicial), before each date of hearing.

In March last year, one of Delhi’s tallest trash mountains, the Ghazipur landfill, caught fire and burnt for two days. This was followed by a fire in the 36-acre Bhalswa landfill in Delhi in April. 

A landfill site is a site for the disposal of waste material. While India’s municipalities are collecting over 95% of the waste generated in cities, the efficiency of waste processing is only 30% to 40%. The wastes are not segregated due to which the landfill sites receive organic waste, ignitable material and plastics. The breakdown of organic waste in the absence of oxygen generates methane gas and heat, and as soon as the methane gas comes in contact with oxygen, the combustible material at the dumping site catch fire easily.

According to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, only non-recyclable, non-biodegradable and non-combustible waste should go to a sanitary landfill. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and as it traps more heat, it is a potent contributor to the climate crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that efforts are being made to remove these mountains of garbage and convert them into green zones.

Solid waste management is a major problem for many urban local bodies in India. Effective solid waste management is a major challenge in cities with high population density. There is an urgent need to move to more sustainable solid waste management practices. However, this requires new management systems and waste management facilities.

There are around 3,000 landfills overflowing with decaying waste and emitting toxic gases in India. The Deonar dumping ground in Mumbai is India’s largest landfill. Deonar has also seen occasional fires break out, enveloping about a million residents in the nearby areas.

India generates 62 million tonnes of waste every year. Nearly 43 million tonnes are collected, of which about 12 million tonnes are treated, and 31 million tonnes are dumped in such landfill sites. With changing consumption patterns, it is estimated that urban municipal solid waste generation will increase to 165 million tonnes in 2030. 

—By Shivam Sharma and India Legal Bureau

The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday appreciated the steps taken by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) authorities for dumping of garbage at Chandrapur area.

The Division Bench of Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Malasri Nandi heard a PIL on the dumping of waste at various places in the city of Guwahati, on the non-availability of any recycling plant for waste management and waste disposal in the city of Guwahati and other related issues.

S. Bora, Standing Counsel for GMC, submitted that as far as dumping of garbage at Chandrapur area is concerned, it has been temporarily stopped. GMC authorities have identified a new place at Boragaon for setting up garbage dumping and treatment plant. The authorities had floated a tender and the process of examination of technical and financial bids has already been concluded. Bora said the GMC authorities are awaiting administrative clearance from the Assam Government for awarding the tender to the successful bidder.

He submitted that once the clearance is given by the State Government, the tender will be awarded to start the work at the earliest at the proposed site at Boragaon.

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The Court was of the view that the tender process must be concluded at the earliest and accordingly. The Bench also wanted to know from both the GMC as well as State authorities as to when this tender process would be concluded by way of award to the successful bidder so that the work can be begun at the earliest without delay. The matter has been listed next on December 13, 2021.

The Covid-19 crisis may be the most defining global event of the last 100 years. The virus has claimed over 1,60,000 lives, destroyed the livelihood of millions of people and crushed the dreams of entrepreneurs and businesses worldwide. Many are predicting that things may never be the same again. It may be time to reset our personal lives, our businesses and government.

On the personal front, each of us will set our priorities—increased time with family, spirituality, meditation, solitude, higher savings, less conspicuous consumption, etc. But collectively, as a species, it is time to start respecting nature. Pollution and waste have become a part of our lives. It is not a coincidence that we wear masks when there is either a pandemic virus or when we breathe toxic air. Nature wants us to stop polluting.

Manufacturing will have to be re-engineered to stop the destruction of our air and water systems. All major cities in India have reported large drops in air pollution after the lockdowns. Beautiful images of the Himalayan mountain range, now visible as a result of reduced air pollution, are a powerful reminder that there needs to be a reset on the use of fossil fuels. And this could present a huge opportunity for India.

India has the potential to be a major global player in waste management, environmental and water treatment products. Technical expertise is abundant, but most companies never acquire the scale required to compete internationally. A reset in the government’s tendering process can change that dramatically. Public utilities, the largest consumers of waste and water treatment products, still use the lowest bidder criterion to award projects. If instead, the contracts were awarded to innovative and efficient technologies, Indian companies would be able to build the scale and track record required to compete for global projects. China, which leads the world in environmental products, provides attractive incentives to emerging and innovative companies, which then eventually acquire the experience and scale to become world leaders in their industry.

It is also time to think about electric engines and move away rapidly from the thermal production of electricity. India’s future economic growth could come from retooling its large automobile industry and creating a massive recycling industry that destroys old fossil fuel cars to produce a new breed of non-polluting electric vehicles. The government should understand what industry wants and provide the necessary incentives and the supporting infrastructure.

It would also spawn an entire industry of ancillary services from recharging stations, metal recycling units, battery production, electronic components and new information technologies to drive and support these modern non-polluting electric vehicles.

Covid-19 will also force the world to explore ways to move away from China’s dominance of global supply chains. India now has an opportunity to position itself as an alternative. It is becoming clear that the world has become over-reliant on China even as Chinese ideology and authoritarian governance pose a direct threat to the value systems of democratic countries. The secrecy with which the Chinese government allowed the Covid-19 virus to become a global pandemic is forcing a rethink among its trade partners. Recent statements by Japan and South Korea expressing interest in pulling companies out of China is evidence of what could soon become a global trend. Already, Germany has given a £130-billion invoice for what Beijing “owes” it for Covid-19 related damages.

India’s track record of democracy and human rights could present an attractive alternative for thousands of industrial products and services. But to take advantage of this opportunity, India would need to reset its regulatory regime. A consequence of India’s big government is the unnecessary regulations that have burdened its companies from becoming world leaders. Only a handful of companies (seven) are currently in the global Fortune 500 list. And that is not because India lacks entrepreneurial competence, but because India’s red tape and bureaucracy, with its array of obsolete and bizarre rules and regulations, hold businesses back. 

For India to take China’s place in the global supply chain, the government will have to unshackle Indian industry from burdensome tax rules, labour laws that prevent companies from expanding, complex regulations that throttle India’s export industry and capital control regulations on foreign exchange.

The government should immediately appoint a committee of industry leaders tasked with the mandate of eliminating 90 percent of regulations in all major sectors. Only regulations that protect the rights of others (citizens, businesses and government), prevent practices that create market imperfections like monopolies and price cartels, and prevent criminal activities should be kept. Regulations that don’t meet these objectives should be eliminated. 

If India wants to maximise its potential as an industrial and technological powerhouse, the existing regulatory structure must be completely reset in favour of increased economic freedom and with a minimal role for the government in matters of finance and commerce.

It is also time to reset India’s trade sector and set a goal of doubling the country’s total global trade in five years. Countries that produce goods and services that others want are wealthier than those that don’t. India contributes only 2.2 percent to global trade, which is small for a country its size. India must start producing goods the world wants. Exports have declined from a high of 26 percent of GDP in 2012 to less than 19 percent in 2019. As a result, the trade deficit reached a record high of $176 billion in the last financial year.

Increased suspicion of China and its unfair trade practices presents a unique opportunity for India to expand its global market share. Resetting India’s export sector will require an immediate exemption on GST for all export businesses. Exporters get a refund on the GST they pay on inputs, but these refunds take anywhere from six to nine months. A complete exemption on GST would free up enormous amounts of working capital and make the country’s exports competitive.

India also needs a comprehensive analysis of its existing and potential export markets and aggressively move to sign free trade agreements with key trading partners.

Finally, the government should prioritise the export sector with liberal credit terms, higher tax deductions for R&D, market penetration and brand promotion strategies. The RBI can help exports by easing capital controls on foreign exchange to attract foreign companies that want to set up value-added manufacturing in India. This will allow India to be a significant player in the global supply chain.

India also needs a reset in its approach to public health. Covid-19 has exposed decades of low public investment in healthcare. India’s total public expenditure on health (centre plus state) has averaged 1.1 percent of GDP over the last ten years compared to the global average of 3.7 percent.

Investment in healthcare will need to double in five years to around 2.5 percent of GDP. Universal health insurance, neighbourhood clinics for preventive medicine, higher investment in medical education and support for a robust pharmaceutical industry are areas of immediate attention.

And as part of public health, the government must provide clean drinking water for all Indians. In the two-month period in which over 540 people have died across the country from Covid-19, over 2,52,000 children have died from water-borne diseases. And sadly, while Covid-19 has paralysed the entire nation, preventable and unnecessary deaths of a quarter of a million children has gone entirely unnoticed because it mostly affects the poor. This is the tragedy and hypocrisy of India’s governance.

Finally, in the post Covid-19 era, India must reset its welfare policies. The economic loss to millions of people has yet to be calculated, but it will be enormous. We can all agree that citizens must be guaranteed some basic level of subsistence. Governments over decades have prided themselves on coming up with “schemes”, but all these suffer from the same inefficiencies: exclusion of the poor, leakages in the system, misallocation of resources across districts and benefits to non-poor.

Estimates by the finance ministry show that in just the PDS and MGNREGA programmes, as much as 40 percent and 65 percent of the funds, respectively did not reach the people who most needed them. There are currently about 950 government schemes which cost about 5.2 percent of the GDP. Even if the average misallocation is 30 percent, the amount of leakage equals almost Rs 2.1 lakh crore.

It is time to reset India’s welfare and subsidy system to give people the right to choose how they should allocate their welfare money and be responsible for the execution and consequences of those choices. It is time for the government to enact a Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme which guarantees every low-income person a minimum subsistence income deposited directly in their accounts. UBI should replace all existing welfare and subsidy schemes and the money saved by eliminating waste and leakages from the system can be used to train people for jobs in the new economy and to provide high-quality education and improve health benefits.

Covid-19 has given us all time to reflect and reset. From crisis come opportunities, and it is time for the country to reset itself to take advantage of these. It is time to reset India onto a path of greater economic freedom, smaller government and wealth creation that benefits all.

A completely new approach is required, in which the government acts as an umpire rather than a player. It would require leadership from the top. Prime Minister Narendra Modi once famously spoke about minimum government and maximum governance. This is his chance to end regulatory overkill, reduce the size and reach of the government and give Indian businesses the economic freedom they need to become world leaders.

—The writer is a financial economist and founder, contractwithindia.com

India’s municipal solid waste (MSW) problems are solvable. They can be achieved by spending less than half the money currently allocated to municipal budgets for solid waste management. All India has to do is follow the template used by other successful MSW systems around the world.

~By Sanjiv Bhatia

India boasts some of the dirtiest cities in the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi deserves credit for using the bully pulpit of his office to address this issue through the Swachh Bharat campaign. More than Rs 20,000 crore has been collected in taxes to aid in this effort. But much still remains to be done.

Various excuses are served up for India’s filth—poverty, overpopulation, illiteracy, corruption, lack of funds, etc. None of these factors, however, explain the reality. Thailand is a poorer country than India—yet Bangkok is cleaner than most Indian cities. Tokyo has a higher population density than Delhi, yet it is one of the cleanest cities in the world. China, too, is plagued by corruption, yet its cities have significantly higher standards of cleanliness than India’s. And it is not lack of funds either—municipalities in India spend an average of Rs 2,100 per tonne of waste compared to Rs 2,050 per tonne in the UK.

India’s municipal solid waste (MSW) problems are solvable and the solutions are quite simple. And they can be achieved by spending less than half the money currently allocated to municipal budgets for solid waste management. All India has to do is follow the template used by other successful MSW systems around the world.

• Successful waste management systems are almost always privately managed. Private companies bring in technical expertise, new technologies, modern operating practices, trained manpower, efficiency and cost controls. The role of the government and the municipal bodies is that of an umpire: to enforce anti-littering laws, create public awareness against littering and levy user/polluter charges. In India, most MSW programmes are still being managed by inefficient and corrupt municipalities. The few towns that have privatised waste management in India—Pune, Surat, Panaji, Mysuru—have successfully tackled the problem and simultaneously raised cost savings from 40 percent to 70 percent.
• Efficient MSW systems are based on the principle of “polluter pays”. In other words, those responsible for producing waste should be responsible for paying for its collection and disposal. There is no free lunch—someone has to pay for a clean environment and a better quality of life. In India, garbage collection is either a “voluntary” act where someone on a manually powered tricycle picks up the garbage for a small fee, or it is an expense item on municipal budgets. Both models are unsustainable. The only feasible model is one in which users (households, shops, restaurants, hotels, offices, companies, etc.) are required to pay for garbage disposal. This fee should be collected by the municipality as part of the utility bill and it has to be mandatory, not voluntary. In addition to providing the necessary finances to make the system effective and sustainable, the very act of being forced to pay increases awareness on waste reduction and forces people to take ownership of the problem. Only then will there be a sustained effort to solve the problem.
• Successful MSW systems have high (almost 100 percent) collection of waste at source. This is enabled by the use of highly efficient and automated equipment capable of handling large volumes of waste with minimal manual intervention. In India, the tricycles and carts used to collect waste can handle only small volumes of it for short distances. As a result, there is a lot of uncollected waste, and to accommodate for this inefficient collection system, most cities are forced to keep a community dumpster for the garbage collector to dump the waste. These dumpsters become a collection point for rag-pickers, stray animals and rodents and are a breeding ground for mosquitoes. These community bins are unnecessary if the initial collection of waste is done using mechanised equipment capable of handling large volumes of waste and transporting it away from populated areas. It is impossible to manage a 21st century problem with 19th century equipment.
• Successful MSW programmes convert waste from a liability to an asset by monetising the resources that come from it. If there is money to be made from segregation, recycling and reuse, there will be no shortage of private companies willing to set up waste processing and segregation plants called material recycling facilities (MRFs). The US has over 15,000 MRFs, while India has less than 15. Even a small country like Den­mark with a population of about five million—less than most Indian towns—has more than 40 waste processing plants.

Most of the recycling in India is carried out by an informal network of rag-pickers and middlemen. Everyone recognises the inefficient nature of this practice. Little is ever done to change things because no one wants the rag-pickers to lose out on opportunities to make a livelihood. This argument is ill-conceived and based on the false premise that rag-pickers cannot (and should not) be retrained for better employment opportunities. A formalised waste management industry will provide ample job opportunities for retrained ragpickers.

• Efficient and sustainable MSW systems extract energy from waste. Indian waste has a high organic fraction—almost 50 percent on average. Currently, about 80,000 tonnes of organic waste are dumped in landfills or open lots every day. Anaerobic digestion technology can be used to convert this organic waste into an excellent source of clean cooking gas for over 50 million low-income families. This is how an efficient MSW system can convert a liability into an asset.
• All successful MSW systems mandate modern scientifically designed landfills to eliminate contamination of groundwater by garbage related leachate (run-off water) and minimise odour and airborne diseases. The MSW Rules, 2000, also mandate such landfills yet over the last 17 years, less than a dozen scientific landfills have been built in the country. Why? Again, it goes back to the issue of incentives. In most developed countries, privately owned landfills charge a tipping fee for taking in waste. This fee pays for the cost of building and running the landfill. It is the profit motive that creates the asset and not government involvement.

In an engineered landfill, the waste is compacted and deposited in cells that are designed to maximise the “airspace”—the amount of waste stored in one cubic yard of space. In Japan, the average landfill rate is around 0.75 tonnes of waste per cubic yard of airspace, whereas in India it is 0.25 tonnes. In other words, it takes almost three times more space to landfill the same volume of waste in India. Without modern landfill technology, India will need to landfill 840 million tonnes of waste over the next 10 years. This will require almost 50,000 acres of land per year. As it is unlikely that this much land will be readily available for landfilling garbage, guess where it will end up—on roads, open lots, rivers, ponds, etc.

Despite the efforts of Swachh Bharat, India remains a dirty country, largely because waste management remains the responsibility of state-owned municipal bodies. The only solution is to get the municipalities out of the waste management business and create incentives for private companies to bring in cutting-edge technologies to collect, transport, segregate, recycle, reuse and dispose of waste. A formalised waste management industry built by private entrepreneurs, backed by private equity and supported by user fees, could clean up the country in five years and also create tens of thousands of jobs.

All the technologies to segregate, recycle and reuse waste currently exist. The global waste management industry is a $230 billion industry employing thousands of people. China has taken a huge leap in this industry and is home to some of the leading manufacturers of waste management equipment. India, with all its engineering prowess, is nowhere on the scene. This stems primarily from dependence on the government to get things done and lack of incentives for private players to invest in the industry.

How can India develop and incentivise a waste management industry? It starts with user fees for collection. Private garbage collection companies get paid from user fees that the municipality levies on the producers of waste. The collected waste is sold to privately owned MRFs which segregate the waste and generate revenue from selling the recyclables. The remaining waste is then taken to a privately-owned landfill which receives a tipping fee based on the quantity of garbage deposited.

Each private player in the system is incentivised to perform. The collection company is motivated to maximise waste collection because its revenue comes from user fees and the sale of waste to the MRF—both measured by volume. The company which runs the MRF makes its money from selling recyclables and so it is persuaded to maximise recyclables and minimise the amount to be disposed of because it has to pay a tipping fee for landfilling. The landfill company makes money from storing waste and is incentivised to use the best landfill engineering practices to maximise airspace.

The invisible hand of the free market and the profit incentive motivate every part of the MSW system to work efficiently, resulting in its efficacy. These incentives will encourage private companies to invest in the development and growth of a modern waste management industry in the country.

Unless the private industry is involved in the process of waste management, Swachh Bharat will remain a mere slogan. 

—The writer is a financial economist and founder, contractwithindia.com

Above: Lack of civic sense has turned our cities into open garbage dumps/Photo: Anil Shakya

State governments are hurriedly formulating policies after the Supreme Court ban on construction activity in states which had blatantly disregarded its earlier directives

~By Papia Samajdar

India’s construction industry is in a tizzy and has got everyone from real estate tycoons to bankers, cement, steel, sanitary, tiles and electrical equipment manufacturers, home buyers as well as millions of labourers worried. The reason for the anxiety in the Rs 10 lakh crore industry is a Supreme Court order banning all states and Union Territories from further construction activity until they frame a solid waste management policy.

Recently, a bench headed by Justice MB Lokur said, “In case the states have the interest of the people in mind and cleanliness and sanitation, they should frame a policy in terms of the solid waste management rules so that the states remain clean. The attitude of the states/union territories in not yet framing a policy even after two years is pathetic, to say the least.”

Reacting to the order, Geetambar Anand of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India said: “This will have a direct implication on daily wage labourers in the industry and might negatively impact the country’s GDP.” An estimated four lakh workers are engaged in the construction industry in Mumbai alone.

Niranjan Hiranandani, president, National Real Estate Development Council, was of the opinion that the state administrations should have been penalised and the stay should have been limited to new construction projects. The order is a setback for the realty sector which has been struggling for the past few years. Projects worth Rs 4,64,300 crore are already behind schedule and would be further delayed due to the order.

“Blaming one particular sector is not the solution for a developing economy. The major focus here is on policy and its implementation whose status is lax as of now. It’s been two years and four months since the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, were notified. However, approximately two-thirds of the states still do not have a policy framework in place. This is an alarming condition,” said Swati S Sambyal, programme manager, Environmental Governance and Waste Management, at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Following the ban, many states are hurriedly putting together policies in line with the Court directives and indications are that the ban will be gradually lifted in all states. According to Bharati Chaturvedi, founder and director of Delhi-based NGO Chintan which works on environmental justice, “Putting legal pressure on states and construction industry to make a plan for waste would only lead to hastily made plans.” She adds: “Construction and demolition (C&D) waste is a huge problem, and adds significantly to air, water and soil pollution. The construction industry, if it meets all the norms including Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) etc, should be held accountable for the urban challenge it creates.”

It was on August 31, 2018 that the Supreme Court stayed further construction activities in all states and Union Territories that had failed to formulate solid waste management policies in compliance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. The order was issued in response to a case filed in 2016 on the inaction of the Delhi government and municipal authorities regarding adequate waste management efforts to curb mosquito breeding.

The PIL was filed by a Delhi-based doctor Anil Mittal, seeking court intervention to direct the centre and the Delhi government to provide better and timely medical facilities and proper garbage disposal.

The Court converted the PIL into a suo motu matter, taking cognisance of a case where the parents committed suicide after their child died of dengue in 2015. That was the year Delhi reported a whopping 15,867 cases of dengue. There was public uproar when seven-year-old Avinash Rout died after five hospitals turned him away due to lack of space. Avinash was finally admitted into Batra Hospital in a critical condition and succumbed to the disease. His parents committed suicide the next day.

Before the latest ban order, the apex court had on July 10, 2018, levied a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Punjab, West Bengal, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, who were represented in the Court. The remaining defaulting states and Union Territories which were not represented were slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh.

Last week, the top court slapped further fines of Rs 3 lakh on Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh, and Rs 5 lakh on Andhra Pradesh for not following the order of July 10, 2018. Not only had these states not formulated a policy on waste management, they were not even represented at the Court hearing.

The fines may not have amounted to much, but the blanket ban is a sign of the bench being irked by the callous attitude of the states in failing to formulate policies in compliance with a central law—Solid Waste Ma­nage­ment Rules (SWM Rules), 2016. By handing out the extreme punishment, the bench was clearly showing its frustration at the impunity with which states have violated its orders.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEF) had notified the updated SWM Rules on April 8, 2016. The SWM Rules deal with management of municipal solid waste generated, segregating it from other kinds of wastes. Different rules for management of plastic waste, construction and demolition waste, bio-medical waste, hazardous waste and e-waste were earlier notified under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

The SWM Rules provide for waste segregation at source, generator fee, and fines for people who burn, litter or bury solid waste generated on streets, or public spaces outside their premises. A central monitoring committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, MoEF, has been constituted to monitor the overall implementation of the rules. The Ministry of Urban Development is tasked with working with states and Union Territories in formulation of the state policy and strategy on solid management based on the national solid waste management policy and national urban sanitation policy.

However, the rules do not have any strict implementation policies. There is no penalisation clause on failure by the states to formulate policies according to the SWM Rules.

According to a 2014 report by a Planning Commission committee headed by Dr K Kasturirangan, India produces 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year. According to another report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2016, urban India produces 52 million tonnes of MSW each year. A 2012 study by Columbia University pegged the per capita MSW generation per day to be around .74 kg/per person per day and a survey conducted by CSE in 2014-15 showed an average MSW generation of 300-600 gm per capita per day.

In 2011, CSE quoted a CPCB report titled, “Not In My Backyard” to say that metro cities are the biggest waste generators—Delhi: 6,800 tonnes per day (tpd) Mumbai: 6,500 tpd, Chennai: 4,500 tpd, Hyderabad: 4,200 tpd, and Kolkata: 3,670 tpd.

The Manual on Solid Waste Management, 2000, issued by the Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organization, says that the percentage of total C&D waste generated is 10-12 percent of the total MSW generated. And a 2016 report by the MoEF says that while 43 million tonnes of MSW are collected per annum, 11.9 million TPA are treated and 31 million TPA dumped in landfill sites. This means that only about 75-80 percent of the municipal waste gets collected and only 22-28 percent of this waste is processed and treated.

Improper waste disposal has a huge environmental and public health impact. Open dumps release methane from decomposition of biodegradable waste leading to fires and explosions. Discarded recyclable materials such as tyres collect water which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Leeching of untreated garbage leads to groundwater and river pollution with magnified health impact. Lack of proper waste disposal leads to increased incidences of infections, allergies, inflammations and health epidemics. Unscientifically dumped C&D waste can also clog rivers leading to floods.

In 2015, a PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court on the inaction of the East Delhi municipal corporations in effective removal of garbage leading to health implications in the area. Two years later, the High Court in its judgment recommended the formation of an expert committee to form and implement a long-term action plan regarding collection, removal and disposal of all the waste in Delhi. The Court accepted the recommendations presented by the committee headed by Sanjeev Jain, Member Secretary, Delhi State Legal Services Authority, on August 2, 2017. The draft bylaws for solid waste management for Delhi were also presented to the Court which were finally notified on January 15, 2018 by the state government under the Environmental Protection Act.

Six months down the line, little has changed in Delhi’s waste management systems. “Municipal corporations could have ensured that the details of the bylaws are widely disseminated to educate people about their responsibilities. At the same time, corporations could have created efficient systems to support end-to-end segregation, processing and appropriate disposal of solid waste. But till date, a layman in Delhi does not know about these bylaws and that households have to pay fines if they do not segregate,” said Ms Sambyal. “Work needs to be done to strengthen capacities and have systems in place—both in terms of policy and implementation of the SWM Rules,” she added.

Sustainable solutions for effective waste management can only be achieved with proper implementation, efficient systems, public awareness and industry incentives. Harsh as it may seem, the Supreme Court’s order banning construction activity is seen by many residents and activists as a necessary move.

Above: A traffic jam near ISBT in New Delhi/Photo: UNI

It is increasingly becoming difficult to find areas where the quality of governance has improved lives. Unless there is continuous accountability for non-performance, India will be left far behind

~By Mukesh Kacker

TWO weeks back, while at a party to usher in the New Year, an acquaintance stumped me with a simple question. Pointing to a news item which said that the government had compulsorily retired 30 Group A and 99 Group B officers in the past few months to weed out the deadwood of its workforce, he asked me what I thought about it and would it make India a better place to live? The answer to the first question was not difficult. I said all organisations, and not just governments, take action against errant employees and it was a routine action into which nothing extraordinary need be read.

It was the second question which took me by surprise and set me thinking. Governments do differ from other organisations because only they set the rules of governance and implement them and it is because of this difference that the quality of their workforce has a direct bearing on the quality of life of ordinary people. The question, I realised, was logical and deserved an answer. Only, I was at a loss to answer it logically and precisely at that moment.

SHODDY SERVICES

So what is the quality of governance in India like? Has it improved or deteriorated over the years? The more I thought about it, the more despondent I became as it was increasingly difficult to find areas where the quality of day-to-day governance had improved the quality of life. Sure, there are many areas where our lives are much better today than in the past but that is either because of our increased access to private goods and services or because of the flood of technological revolutions, both being areas of private enterprise. However, the moment you analyse goods and services under the category of “public goods”, you find that governance has actually made life worse, even in the midst of technological advancements.

Look around. Today we have access to the most advanced cars but our traffic is in a mess. This is as much a result of confused policymaking as of poor or non-existent traffic regulation. Delhi, the capital, has arguably the worst-trained and most ineffective traffic police in the country and though I am sympathetic to the difficult task of a traffic policeman, I am appalled at the poor governance and mismanagement by the traffic police bosses. Then there is the state PWD, under the Delhi government, which has made matters worse by poor planning, shoddy implementation and unimaginative work culture. How difficult can it be to first identify traffic bottlenecks by undertaking simple traffic audits and then remove them with common sense solutions? What surprises me is that this pathetic state of affairs continues right under the respective noses of two governments!

DIRTY INDIA

What about sanitation and cleanliness? I have great respect for the prime minister who pushed this neglected subject high up in the list of priorities in a country which has a thousand needs. However, it is the job of the people working under him to give shape to the policies prioritised by him and implement them effectively. So, is Delhi any cleaner today? How difficult was it for a top administrator, the lieutanant governor, for example, to take ownership of Delhi’s cleanliness after the prime minister announced the Swachh Bharat initiative and call the chiefs of the MCD, NDMC, DJB, DDA and other related agencies and ask them for a time-bound plan to clean Delhi? After all, it is the capital of India and could have been the best example of Swachh Bharat.

However, except for Lutyens’ Delhi, the rest of it is as dirty as before. Drains are not unclogged or desilted and sewage water overflows regularly at various places, sometimes even getting mixed with drinking water. Garbage dumps are a mile high with no proper planning regarding alternative sites. Segregation of dry waste is still unscientific, there is no regime for disposal of e-waste and sewage treatment is anachronistic. No wonder the sacred Yamuna in Delhi is dirtier than a sewage nullah. Try keeping your eyes open and nose uncovered if you travel out of Delhi by train. While a lot of work has been done in rural areas in the “open defecation-free” initiative, have the Railways been exempted from it? If Swachh Bharat is about freedom from litter and efficient disposal of waste, both solid and liquid, there couldn’t be a worse advertisement than the capital of India.

Traffic and municipal waste add to pollution but for the moment, let us disregard them and focus on the biggest contributor to city pollution—construction dust. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) came out with a detailed order on how to manage dust at construction sites in Delhi. While it was applicable to all construction agencies, the order has remained on paper. The worst violators are government agencies as most construction sites are controlled or regulated by them—flyovers, roads, the Metro, etc. For the last three years, a Metro station coming up in Vasant Vihar, a residential colony, has not followed even five percent of the NGT order on dust control. For years, mounds of earth and construction material piled in open spaces without protective covering have clogged the lungs of the residents but Delhi Metro, unmindful of the pollution being caused by it, has carried on unconcerned, almost contemptuous of any regulation. The various flyovers/roads being constructed or repaired present a similar picture. Who does one complain to? Is there any accountability at all?

The list is endless and scary. You travel in a train and the train derails or falls into a river because the track has not been repaired for years or the bridge was well past its expiry date. You go to a restaurant to celebrate your birthday but die in a fire because the municipal corporation had been lax in checking its fire safety compliance. You step out of your car on a water-logged road to walk to your house and end up being swallowed by an open manhole. You go to an event but end up being the victim of a stampede because someone was lax in enforcing regulations. You are rushing a dear relative to hospital in an ambulance but a traffic jam snuffs out your hope. These are the horror stories ordinary citizens have to face every day due to the dereliction of duty by government agencies.

PRIME REGULATOR

It is not that everything is fine regarding private space but regulating it is in the hands of governments. Regulate it by all means to improve the quality of life of ordinary people. And regulate your own agencies as strictly because public space is much larger than private space. That is what governance means. As Nobel laureate VS Naipaul said, India is a wounded civilisation. However, most of these wounds appear self-inflicted. Our destiny is now in our own hands but a serious governance deficit is preventing us from realising our true potential.

The answer to the second part of the question is right there. The government’s action in weeding out the non-performers, as reported in the news item, is welcome but grossly insufficient in improving day-to-day governance. The crucial word here is “continuous accountability”.

Unless public officials are made accountable for non-performance and dereliction of duty, and not just for corruption, we cannot hope to catch up with even our neighbours in Southeast Asia, leave alone China. It is non-performance that breeds corruption, not the other way around.

—The writer is a former IAS officer, an expert on corporate governance and a columnist on governance and infrastructure

Above Photo: UNI

The National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) principal bench, headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar on Monday (July 17) issued fresh bailable warrants against those responsible for waste management in hospitals, hotels, colleges, malls, railway stations, bus terminals, waste to energy plants and residential societies in Delhi.

On Monday, the counsel for Akta Housing Society was not present. Akta Housing Society and Narela Police Colony haven’t filed their status reports.

The bench, while issuing warrants, directed the local SHO to bring them on the next date.

—India Legal Bureau

Despite various cleanliness campaigns, huge amounts of waste lie untreated in India. An expert panel has prepared a report on the effective ways to dispose of solid waste and this could become national policy.
By Prakash Bhandari

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiative, little has been done to reduce waste in India. Besides eliminating open defecation, there is a need to treat liquid waste (municipal and industrial discharges) prior to it being discharged into any surface water and managing hazardous, industrial and municipal solid waste (MSW).

A PIL was filed in 1996 against Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and all states for their failure to manage solid waste. The Supreme Court set up an expert committee and gave directions in 1999 to all Class One cities to take action as recommended and asked the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) to frame rules. Though the MoEF framed MSW Management Rules, 2000, have been in place for the last 15 years, there has been little compliance.

WHAT A MESS
Out of the 1,70,000 metric tons of MSW generated each day in 7,935 urban centers, only about one lakh tons is collected and only 25,000 tons is processed. The rest goes to open dump sites causing serious health and environment problems and usurps thousands of acres of precious land.

The MoEF has now decided to supersede the existing MSW Rules and replace them with more comprehensive Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2015, fixing accountability among various stakeholders. Meanwhile, a committee of experts headed by the chairman of Ahmedabad-based UMC Global Pvt Ltd, PU Asnani, was set up to prepare a report in this regard. It submitted this to the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) in December.

Out of the 1,70,000 metric tons of MSW generated each day in 7,935 urban centers, only about one lakh tons is
collected and only 25,000 tons is processed.

The ministry will review it and frame new rules. This expert panel has made several ministries responsible for effective implementation and issues that were not included in the SWM Rules have now been added.

Speaking to India Legal, Asnani said: “This committee stressed the need for strengthening the regulatory framework and strategic systems improvement and found that the solution lies in adopting a citizen-centric approach and making the citizens, municipal authorities and various stakeholders accountable for the management of MSW. The committee also looked at the promotion of private investments in service delivery of a PPP mode and also for providing technical and financial assistance.”

MSW is non-hazardous solid waste from residential, commercial and institutional areas. It also includes non-pathogenic waste from hospitals, markets and streets. Some-times, construction and demolition debris is also included. Recently, electrical and electronic waste too has constituted a significant proportion of MSW and has become a major environmental issue.

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES
According to Asnani, the new rules and the Swachh Bharat Mission aim at citizens’ active participation, segregation of recyclables, door-to-door waste collection, transportation and processing them into bio-degradable, non-recyclable, combustibles, construction and destruction (C&D) waste, etc, and moving towards the concept of zero waste. “Green technologies such as bio-methanation and composting are mandated to process bio-degradable matter whereas waste to energy technologies are only recommended to harness energy from non-recyclable high calorific value wastes,” said Asnani.

Under the new rules, all recyclables are to be retrieved from sources of waste generation or at material recovery facilities to conserve natural resources. C&D waste is mandated to be converted into bricks, paver blocks, building material, etc. At least 90 percent of waste is expected to be reduced through recycling and processing.

The new rules will apply to all municipalities, notified areas and urbanised panchayats which are declared as census towns and also to railways, airports, sea ports and defense establishments.

Citizens will also be made responsible for waste management. While earlier no accountability was fixed on waste generators, now citizens and all those generating waste will be held responsible. The generator will not be allowed to litter, bury or burn waste and will have to segregate at source and separately store various wastes. Generators will also have to pay user fees for the sustainability of service. If citizens don’t comply, municipalities may impose fines.

MINISTRIES’ ROLE
The expert committee also specified the duties of all the three ministries for better implementation of the rules. It specified that MoEF will monitor the implementation of rules through central and state Pollution Control Boards and have a central monitoring committee to see the progress of implementation.

The MoUD will frame a national policy on MSWM (Municipal Solid Waste Management) and a strategy for implementation of rules, guide states in framing policy and help in strategy and development in the SWM sector and help in training and capacity building of ULBs.

The Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, though not directly involved with municipal administration or waste management, shall give incentives for the sale of compost and promote co-marketing of compost with chemical fertilizers.

Asnani said that as municipal administration is a state subject, state governments will have to play a bigger and effective role in the success of the new rules. The rules ensure that after collection and storing domestic, institutional and market waste, it will be taken directly to the processing facility through a material recovery facility. This waste will not be mixed with street waste.

Door to door collection of segregated bio-degradable and sanitary waste on a daily basis at pre-informed timings and other wastes may be determined by the municipal authority, it said. Stress has been laid on minimizing the waste going to a landfill and setting up of sanitary landfills for residual waste.

Re-using discarded goods without reprocessing or remanufacture is given priority over recycling, he said. “Increased scarcity of natural resources and the consequent rise in commodity prices have influenced the demand for recycled products. Recycling materials such as paper, glass and plastics as well as composting and digestion of bio-waste, becomes the next preferable option.”

The world market for municipal waste is worth $410 billion a year. However, only a quarter of the four billion tons of municipal waste produced each year is recycled or recovered. If India could recycle and reuse the 1,70,000 metric tons of MSW generated daily, it could turn that into gold by producing energy. This would also provide at least one million jobs in the country.