Solid waste management has been a long-standing problem in Bengaluru, one that hardly needs point out. The problem is many-pronged and although solutions are available at every turn, none are being implemented. Our biggest challenge lies not in technology but in political will, the weakest link in the chain.
The first issue is fairly obvious — where do we dump our waste? Landfills can only accommodate so much and nobody wants one near their homes. The only other option, therefore, is to get rid of it completely.
Wet waste can be disposed of in a number of ways. It can be used to produce gas and power, while the rest needs to be recycled. Dry waste, which can berecycled, needs to generate some sort of income, otherwise it becomes a very expensive, meaningless process. Wet waste can be used to produce power and the technology for this is widely available. There are companies coming forward and talking about using it to generate energy.
Karnataka is in talks with a Dutch consortium that can take care of about 600 metric tonnes and generate about 7 megawatts of power. They need permissions from the government for land acquisition and approvals from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. They are willing to deal with the waste at their own cost, but the power needs to be purchased by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) at their standard rate.
Our city development minister, K.J. George, is going to Goa, where the first plant is being set up, to see how things are being done. Bengaluru needs about four of these plants to take care of the garbage problem in its entirety. The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t require segregation.
Composting is another possible solution, but this requires segregation to take place at the source. The idea of segregation has been bandied about for a while, but it doesn’t seem to be the most practical solution — it simply hasn’t caught on. Businesses and hotels can be told to segregate their wet waste, which can be used to make compost. At the individual level, however, it simply hasn't caught on. People, even those who are willing to ensure that they segregate their waste at the source, are dissuaded by the fact that there is no last mile connectivity.
How can we make segregation work for us? Garbage trucks need to be colour coded, wet-waste picked up every day and dry waste every other day, perhaps.
At the moment, waste, even if it is segregated, is loaded into a single cart and then put in a garbage truck, where it is dumped in landfills and burnt en-masse. This rules out both composting and recycling, because both require well-segregated waste. The mechanisms can be put in place quite easily, but that's where the garbage mafia comes in, making a fairly doable task almost impossible. Bengaluru has seven waste disposal plants, which are currently running at about one-seventh their capacity, for exactly this reason.
The technology exists and the mechanisms for composting and recycling are already in place. So why doesn’t it all come together? Corruption. The money in garbage disposal is humongous, it’s practically being generated out of thin air. There is no way, either, to keep track of how many trucks are in use and how much garbage is being collected — these figures are easily fudged. The government has talked about a GPS system for trucks, which is all very well, but that system is easy to bypass. As things stand, thousands of crores are being generated even though nothing gets done — which works perfectly for those who are making money.
Activists and NGOs approach the courts, but corporators can obtain a stay with very little trouble, for these are easily granted. The original plan was to ensure segregation at source and have waste managed at the ward level. Each ward was identified as an entity and an Irish company conducted a study on how much waste is generated in each of these wards. This was done by counting the number of residents, commercial units and hotels to arrive at an approximate figure. They concluded that about 3000 tonnes of waste is being generated by the city on a daily basis. Technology is available to dispose of the waste, both segregated and non-segregated.
Sadly, there are people who refuse to comply with this system, for it becomes far less profitable for them. Waste can be used to generate power and to make compost, but it simply isn't done. The fundamental problems, therefore, lie in political will and the bureaucracy. It must be said that our bureaucrats are extremely capable and well-meaning, but their hands are tied by the politicians who oversee them. Many MLAs and MLCs are part of the mafia themselves, or hand-in-glove with them. There is no fear, after all, that they will be dragged to court or be made to give up their ministerial positions. If this problem were to happen in say, Tamil Nadu, the mafia would be exposed with a world from Amma and things would fall into place once. Karnataka, however, is a different matter. Who will listen to our Chief Minister, if he shouts?
The root cause of the problem, therefore, is not technology, but corruption. It all boils down to our CM and his MLAs. We must pause at this point and ask ourselves if we really want to see a clean Bengaluru? Why would they want to give up such a good, profitable system? We need to rope in political will, for nothing can be done without them. The BBMP is trying its hardest, the Commissioner always says that garbage takes up 70% of his time. It boils down, therefore, to the politicians in charge and their determination to root out the malpractices and get the system in working order once more. Are they willing to stick their necks out and expose the mafia, which can be done quite easily. Bureaucrats can get the job done, but will they be allowed to work?
I can talk about solutions based on technology and administration, but I have no answers for corruption. The bottom line is that we need to clean our conscience before we can get started on the city!
(The writer is an urban expert based in Bengaluru)
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