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Why Swachh Bharat and UN disagree on how clean a small city in Kerala is

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DailyBiteDec 05, 2017 | 19:23

Why Swachh Bharat and UN disagree on how clean a small city in Kerala is

Alappuzha, also known as Alleppey, is a coastal city in Kerala that is endowed with beautiful scenery, backwaters, canals and a rich history. In fact, during the British Raj, Viceroy Lord Curzon referred to the city as “Venice of the East”. But an old unofficial title and tourist destinations are not all that the city’s résumé can boast of. In a recent report titled “Solid approach to waste: How 5 cities are beating pollution”, the United Nations Environment Programme listed Alappuzha among cities "with a solid approach to waste". The list includes Osaka (Japan), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Penang (Malaysia) and Cajica (Colombia).

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In the report, the UNEP notes that the five cities live up to the organisation’s standards in their attempts at curbing air, water and soil pollution, especially in their approach towards disposal of waste. The report further says that other cities in India should follow Alappuzha’s model of waste management, adding that this would help Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieve his goals – he chose World Environment Day 2017 to launch a drive to address the mountains of trash piling up at streets and landfills across India.

So what is Alappuzha’s secret to success?

According to Thomas Joseph, the municipal commissioner of Alappuzha, source segregation is an answer to all garbage problems. Speaking to NDTV, Joseph said: “It doesn’t matter how big or small a municipal body and the region is, if source segregation is implemented properly than the problem can be solved quickly. And source segregation is only possible when the citizens are fully aware of its consequences.”

The UNEP report talks about the municipality’s decentralised approach to waste management, which is making citizens the major stakeholders in the entire process. In fact, the city’s main landfill site was shut in 2014 after protests from locals because the city’s garbage problem was not only affecting tourism, but also the health of its inhabitants.

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Photo: Kerala Tourism

Following this episode, the city then adopted “My Garbage, My Responsibility” as its new approach, under which the municipality encouraged citizens to compost more, while adding more biogas plants, aerobic composting units and bins. According to a report in The Print, there are 3,000 biogas plants and 2,800 pipe compost bins in about 70 to 80 per cent of the homes in the city. Additionally, for those who don’t have their own bins, there are 33 aerobic units placed at a distance of a kilometre from each other where garbage can be dumped for composting in community bins.

The municipality also ensured the proper disposal of dry waste. The effort to instil a habit of waste management was largely shouldered by students who helped spread awareness of segregating waste, aided by the municipality.

The municipal corporation has also been instrumental in tackling garbage generation and disposal in markets and commercial areas. The city’s vendors and restaurants follow a strict green policy, with heavy fines having been imposed to ensure that no garbage is discarded on roads or anywhere else.

The report adds that today, the city has no landfill and that most of the garbage is treated by the residents themselves.

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But here’s the kicker

Tony Joseph, the former editor of Businessworld magazine, tweeted on December 4 that despite the UNEP’s appreciation of the city’s waste management, Alappuzha ranks 380 in Swachh Survekshan 2017, a central government survey commissioned by the ministry of urban development that ranks 500 Indian cities. The aim of the survey is to keep tabs on the progress of the prime minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The survey lists Indore as India’s cleanest city.

In a series of tweets, Joseph argues that the skewed ranking is because of the way the government views waste management.

The problem lies, perhaps, in how the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the Swachh Survekshan measure waste management. According to the survey’s report, “The cities were scrutinised on their level of preparedness on the basis of cleanliness and sanitation, and municipal documentation. The Survekshan methodology was trifurcated into following parts: municipal documentation, independent observation and citizen feedback.”

The performance of each city in the above three parts was evaluated on five key thematic parameters: 1) Municipal solid waste (MSW) – sweeping, collection and transportation; 2) MSW – processing and deposal of waste; 3) Open defecation free/toilets; 4) Building capacity and e-learning; and finally, 5) IEC or information, education and communication.

In an editorial, Business Line’s deputy editor Jinoy Jose P writes that the survey gives undue weightage to centralised waste management methods such as landfills and waste-to-energy plants, ignoring decentralised approaches such as waste segregation, and recycling and reuse; something the Centre for Science and Environment also points out. Cities that promoted a fairly centralised, top-down approach to waste management were given priority over those that had taken a participatory, decentralised approach, he adds.

He also notes that while Alappuzha ranks 380 in the survey, especially poor in a control group of 500 cities, Surat, which dumps 1,600 tonnes of unsegregated and unprocessed garbage every day in a landfill, is ranked fourth.

Of course, there is also the possibility that cities under BJP’s rule were given some leeway and states like Kerala, which fall under a communist regime, may have been sidelined to a certain degree. In fact, as was pointed out in a detailed The Wire report, Indore’s first position has more to it than meets the eye – demolitions, evictions and last minute construction, meant just for the survey.

Neither favouring BJP states nor putting up a false show will further the cause of a clean India. Alappuzha’s approach, whether or not the UN endorses it, shows the most potential. After all, it is only when the whole community pitches in can a city remain clean.

Perhaps, it is time the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan took note.

Last updated: December 05, 2017 | 19:23
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