The Making of a Clean City Model

[box type=”shadow” ]“Collecting waste from each door, and then taking to the landfills that are far away from the generation points, is the worst model, we have created for the coming generations. Similar is the case with wastewater. The waste or wastewater must be disposed off at the source itself,” opines Jose Joseph Moonjely, Executive Director- CREDAI Clean City Movement during an interaction with Suprita Anupam.[/box]

THE IDEA of ‘Clean City’ germinated in 2007, when the ‘Garbage Crisis’ hit Kochi. CREDAI Kochi joined hands with Jose Joseph to set up a committed team with adequate funds to develop a robust waste management plan. The ecofriendly waste management technique uses the aerobic microbial composting system for solid waste Management. However, the social project is playing a vital role in tackling other issues such as poverty alleviation and women empowerment whereby women from economically weaker section of the Association are given employment.

How did the Idea germinated?

It started somewhere in 2000, when some of my European friends refused to walk on the roads of Kochi, citing the garbage. It hurt me. In 1498, a foreigner Vasco Da Gama having landed to the same State Kerla and praised the State for its natural beauty. Today my friends are criticising the same land for the dirtiness around. The issue motivated me to dig the root cause. I observed, the forest area was still clean and green, as the animals and tribes were not adding to pollution. This made me to conclude that there is something wrong with our approach to environment. The community has intentionally been distancing itself from nature.

To understand the current scenario, I travelled the entire state of Kerala along with a photographer, took the videos of dumping grounds, and showed them to the local MLAs and the Minister. The response from the authorities was not encouraging.

I decided to start from my house, right from collecting garbage to composting. The concept caught on and I experimented with a cluster of 800 houses in 2003 with the help of a lady councillor and an Advocate. We kept bio-bins along the roadsides and national highway. We made a demonstration place near to a big dumping ground. The place which was clean & green a year ago had turned to a dumping ground now.

[box type=”shadow” ]“We don’t do any segregation. Segregation is required only when you mix up two wastes. Why to go to hospital when you are not sick? Prevention is better than cure.”[/box]

Further challenges that you faced…

We were immediately called by the National Highway engineers and blamed for encroachment. But, we were firm about not moving the bins until the area was made waste free. Finally, Corporation cleaned the entire area and overnight we turned the place into a garden. This was noticed by CREDAI.

Clean City Movement

CREDAI, the then Kerala Builders Forum visited the site and discussed with the advocate and the Councillor to implement something similar for its buildings too. They had to take a wakeup call soon, as the Cochin properties were down owing to the rising pollution in the City. Nobody wanted to buy any property there. Local residents too started migrating as epidemic started howling. CREDAI officials diverted the funds kept for office construction, to spend on self-reliant solid waste management programme.

[box type=”shadow” ]“A clean city cannot be developed at the cost of a village. We need to stop this model, immediately.”[/box]

This is then, I associated myself with CREDAI, leading the pet project-CREDAI clean city. CREDAI Clean City Movement is a non-profit NGO working towards the development of clean-country.

What is your working model?

We hired one person with experience in government finance department as the project director and appointed project executives, projects managers, supervisors and around fifty workers under him. A structure was created. We selected some twenty five apartments and complexes, made them waste-free. Right from collection to composting everything was established at source itself. Within six months we were invited adopt another 50 buildings.

At present, we are managing 80,000 flats / 1200 buildings. Nearly 1300 workers are working, keeping the city clean.

We also train workers and hand them over to other organisations that want to implement waste management at their premises. Fifty workers are monitored by one supervisor, five supervisors by one project executive and five project executives by a project manager as part of the sustainable model.

With further help from the government, we have got plastic shredding machine that is utilized for crushing the plastic and the waste for road taring. We have also installed bio-fuel plant that generates electricity/ energy.

We have also got various sponsors such as financial organizations like HDFC, South India Bank, HDLC. They provide vehicles to us and to do justice with their investment, we do put their names on the vehicle as part of mobile advertisement. For them, it is part of their CSR, hence tax is exempted and at the same time they are also getting the value added mileage out of it.

 To help people understand not to mix garbage, qualified people such as project managers or project executives are used to go to the apartment & colonies in the night, to teach each and every family member, their responsibilities.

Awards & Recognition?

The efforts have been recognised countrywide. The Urban Development Ministry has awarded this project as the best model of 2014. However, what I would prefer to say that CREDAI has come up with the best replicable model in India and that should be followed. Or better, you can say it as an acceptable model to all the segments. The ISO registering authority also complimented us by saying this was the first time, they have seen such a clean plant, where people can sit and have their food at the waste treatment plant.

The external project that caught attention is of Technopark, Thiruannatpuram that generates around 3,000kg of food waste a day. Every day, in Technopark the collected waste is either converted into compost, both liquid and solid and biogas. The rest is brunt in the incinerator, the smoke of which is passed through a scrub so that it comes out non-toxic.

The goodness lies in whatever you are receiving from the nature, you must give it back.

Do you call your efforts a social revolution?

We hire ladies who are struggling to make both ends meet. The working time is modified to suit their daily routine. To protect their dignity, we address them, as Safaiwala and not kachrawala.

Today, they go to work in two wheeler and in way leads to poverty elimination & woman empowerment. We are collecting nominal service charges from people to keep the model sustainable. The supervisors too are ladies and we have helped them buy scooters. With a sense of ownership, they maintain the vehicles properly.

With proper uniforms, the ladies have now become the ambassadors for cleanliness. The social gap too, is getting filled.