Belgaum City Corporation; Towards creating wealth out of waste

The city generates about 180-200 TPD of MSW of which the sanitation work of 43 wards has been outsourced. Remaining 15 wards are managed by Corporation Pourkarmikas. During implementation of Municipal Solid Waste Management rules as per the Supreme Court guidelines, the City Corporation Belgaum faced the challenges like initiation of primary collection i.e. door to door collection of garbage, street sweeping and open drain cleaning, establishment of MSW site and ban on plastic.

To prevent open dumping of waste by the public, awareness programme regarding door to door collection and primary segregation has been taken up. The NGO namely United Social Welfare Organisation has been engaged for creating awareness among the people. Different activities have been adopted such as distribution of pamphlets, door to door visits, meeting with Mahila Mandals & RWA and conducting of film shows in localities and schools. Appeals through local cable network are also being continuously carried out.

The Corporation has banned usage of less than 40 micron plastic carry bags and fixed its fine in accordance with the government directives. Paper notification in local newspaper, advertisement in local news channel and distribution of pamphlets are regularly being done to educate the public. Raids have also been conducted on the plastic retailers, who don’t follow rules and a fine of 26000 has been collected from them as a part of the pollution cost. All these efforts have brought down the use of plastic to a great extent.

Collection, transportation and disposal of garbage

To avoid open dumping of garbage on the streets and other places, the Corporation of Belgaum has procured 280 closed metal containers of size 1.1cum, 3cum and 4.5cum, 10 twin bin dumper placers, two 18cum capacity compactors and two 6cum capacity compactors. The compactors help handling of garbage and avoiding spillage during transportation.

There are two separate fully covered vehicles for transportation of hotel waste, chicken shop and mutton shop waste. Corporation has procured back hoe loader for removal of silt, mud debris during cleaning. To avoid open dumping of MSW, the Belgaum City Corporation has established scientific landfill site for treatment and disposal of MSW as per the Supreme Court guidelines. Biomedical facility is being run by Indian Medical Association (IMA) in an area provided by the Corporation. The lifting and disposal of biomedical waste is based on mutual agreement between the facility managers and the medical institutions. To give legal backing for SWM activities, bye-laws have been passed which provide for penal provisions for non-co-operation in SWM activities.

Solid Waste Management Programmes

Following Government directives, the Corporation is in the process of putting in place City Sanitation Plan with the help of Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad. At present the entire waste is transported to MSW site situated 14km away from the city at Turmuri village in an area of 67 acres. The processing and disposal of MSW has been accorded to a waste management company, Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd, for 100 tonnes for a period of 20 years. The operator has adopted aerobic composting process for bioconversion of organic waste into organic manure. The MSW is received on the windrow platform and formed into windrows after treating with a specially developed biological innoculam. This innoculam contains active microbes (bacteria, fungi, actinomycites) effective in fast decomposition of organic matter. The Corporation is also in the process of implementing waste to energy technology including bio-methanisation plants.

There are a few industries in the City Corporation limits, majority of which are iron based or crank shaft industries and recycle waste in-house.

Mechanized cleaning of roads

The Corporation has outsourced street sweeping in 43 wards and rest of the 15 wards are being taken care of by the Corporation employees. The Corporation has procured tractor mounted sweeping machine for main roads and one back hoe loader for cleaning of big drains. To prevent manual cleaning of Under Ground Drainage (UGD) lines, the Corporation has procured jetting cum suction machine and the same is being used for flushing of UGD blockages other than the two suction machines for cleaning of septic tanks.

Eco friendly initiatives

As part of our commitment towards a greener economy, we are procuring two units of 10 seater mobile bio-toilets to discourage open defecation within city limits. We have passed a resolution making it compulsory for every building design to integrate rain water harvesting technology for which the building permission will be issued. We are in the final stage of passing plastic byelaws in accordance with Plastic Waste Handling Rules 2011. With the aim of reusing the plastic waste for construction of roads and other industrial purposes, the Corporation has started procurement of plastic pelletiser and shredder.

 

 

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