JMC initiates waste segregation campaign

JAIPUR: Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) introduced a new initiative for segregation of waste at source in eight wards of the city on May 20. The initiative faced few challenges due to lack of awareness among people regarding wet and dry waste.

The JMC officials said that the door-to-door collection agency was instructed to collect wet and dry waste separately in different chambers, dumping however was not segregated.

Previously, the corporation began the collection of dry and wet garbage separately in the SFS Colony, Mansarovar, on a trial basis. On May 20, the segregated collection was introduced in eight wards – 21, 24, 43, 40, 61, 87, 84 and 45.

According to Kavita Chaudhary, deputy commissioner (health), one ward was selected from each zone for door-to-door garbage collection with monitoring by zone deputy commissioners. She further added that the corporation is currently focusing on the forthcoming Swachh Survekshan survey. These two are the major areas which need more attention.

Lack of awareness among people regarding the segregation of waste was visible while the deputy commissioners in several areas monitored the waste collection on the ground. BVG India Limited, agency deployed for door-to-door collection of garbage, said that segregated waste collection could not be done adequately since the people at the source did not use separate dustbins.

Dr Anand Sonawane, project director, BVG India Limited, said, “The waste collection done on May 20, was same as we do daily, although we have started an awareness drive to tell people how to keep separate dustbins for dry and wet waste so that we can collect segregated waste from them. The drive initiative can only be successful if people are aware about waste segregation, we have started telling people but the process may take a week or so, he added.

To aware people JMC officials said nearly 858 cleanliness workers will be deployed soon for an awareness campaign among residents. The JMC has taken the segregated waste collection initiative eyeing the Swachh Survekshan Survey where the civic body dropped down five positions in 2019 in comparison to 2018. Jaipur city bagged 44^th position in the Swachh Survekshan Survey-2019.