Addressing the gathering, Dr Janardhan Reddy spoke on the challenges being faced presently and called on the stakeholders to make contributions to overcome the issues.
“There are good technologies available all over the world for solid waste and liquid waste management or for sewerage management, but are not completely suitable our conditions. The composition of the solid waste that is produced in a particular country is different from another. Thus, a technology that is developed elsewhere does not automatically fit here.
It is only such platforms like Clean India Technology Week will help us to get a very good exposure. The GHMC engineers and at least 30 deputy commissioners will be here at the show to understand the various technologies and see what solutions are suitable. I really thank and appreciate for organizing such a conference to exchange notes, inputs.
Every year desilting of stormwater drains, is done manually. The roads are too narrow to access with machines. We require smaller machines which can be effectively and efficiently used for cleaning even in bylanes.
Septic tank management is a very big issue in many Indian cities. Where should one dispose sewer waste suck out of the septic tank? What are the technologies available and what sort of disposable mechanism is available?
Demolishing of old structures and constructing new ones is fine, however, when and where to dispose old buildings demolished waste? Out of 4041 towns in the country, 4035 municipalities do not have the system for disposal of C&DW. We have been calling tenders but have not been able to finalize due to poor response.
If all the 4041 municipalities take up the activity, some 1000 to 2000 entrepreneurs would come and may be they will procure or secure or manufacturer or think of a suitable environmental technology. The cost too will come down.
Swachata does not mean taking bath and wearing iron clothes daily. Cleanliness should be on roads, graveyards, parks, sports, shops, malls, restaurants, petrol pumps… everybody and everywhere it must be very neat.
We need to have around 1000 public toilets against the 500 that we have. In the last one month, we are making use of resources available at petrol and diesel pumps. We could convince 260 such pumps in Hyderabad to enable the pedestrians access the toilets. Out of the 1000 toilets that we need, we have to construct only 300.
Things are changing for the better but we need the right solutions and technology. First time in history of India, twin bins are being given to segregate the waste. Autos have been introduced in place of rickshaws and efficiency has increased in collecting the waste from 3500metric tons to 4500metric tons per day. This is an achievement in the past one year after moving towards mechanisation in Hyderabad.
GHMC spent Rs 29 crores to give these twin bins to around 22 lakh households and then spent around Rs.200 crores to purchase the autos and still the segregation is not happening because we are not able to connect with housewives, maids, rickshaws and auto rickshaws. It was only recently the first truck went with the segregated waste to Jawahar Nagar. This is like a new game changer, new habits, culture change, behavioral change for people and ground level workers who were primarily involved in it.
Further we request the technology providers to provide maintenance too. We are using electronic toilets, where the service providers will maintain it for a year. The government is very good in creating asset and very bad in maintaining them. We approached the State Bank of Hyderabad to sponsor two electronic toilets and they gave four, now we have over 100 sponsors like HUDCO, SBI, NDMC, Indian Oil Corporation.”