While most citizens approve of the environment-friendly rule requiring segregation of garbage at source, it remains to be seen how things pan out when the rule comes into force on Monday. All the stakeholders have geared up to meet the challenge. Many residents’ welfare associations and NGOs have joined hands with the BBMP to work on the issue. NGOs and individuals are helping the BBMP to figure out what it can do with the wet waste. Existing landfills have mixed waste, so the BBMP needs to figure out how and where to process the wet waste that citizens deposit with them every day.
The citizen-BBMP team seems to have zeroed in on decentralisation of waste processing as a key strategy. The modalities of the process, however, need to be finalised. BBMP Commissioner Rajneesh Goel said: “We have requested the BBMP council to help us at the grassroots level. The Mayor and corporators have assured us of their support. Our corporators are going to their respective areas and appealing to the citizens to start segregating waste. They are explaining the idea to them and are also clarifying citizens' queries and doubts. Understanding the importance of reaching out to each citizen, we are tackling the issue ward-wise. I am holding meetings with groups of local officials. Local revenue officials, health officials and BBMP environmental officials are all sitting together to understand how waste is generated and collected in each ward. This will help us understand each ward and we can decentralise the entire process of waste management efficiently at ward level.”
Doing its bit to raise awareness, the Solid Waste Management Round Table and the Citizens Action Forum are organising a walkathon starting from Tagore Circle in Gandhi Bazaar on October 2, the second day of imposition of the new rule. BBMP Commissioner Dr Rajneesh Goel and Jayanagar MLA B.N. Vijaya Kumar will participate in the event. Members of the SWMRT have been going to apartments across the city to motivate people to segregate waste at source, compost their wet waste in the ward, and reuse or recycle the dry waste.
"The BBMP is organising a door-to-door awareness campaign and I called them because I wanted to pitch in for Malleswaram. The environment officer told me that they would get back to me, but they didn't. They don't seem to want our help right now, but we're willing to pitch in any time they do," said Ms Vani Murthy of SWMRT. “I feel that every ward corporator should be assigned the task of driving information to the grassroots level. There is a well defined hierarchy in the BBMP and giving and following instructions doesn’t look like a problem,” said Meenakshi Bharath, a civic activist who has been involved in the segregation-at-source campaign in the city.