Urban development: SWM situation in Bangalore

Abstract

Due to urbanization, the city of Bangalore has been rapidly expanding over the past few years. This growth of the city was not planned for and hence it has resulted in several issues such as traffic congestion, insufficient water supply, waste management problems and so on. Waste Management is an important concern considering the increasing pollution levels in the city. With rising population, rapid economic development and improved standard of living, the per capita waste generation has increased in the city. Different types of waste will have to be treated separately. There are several stages in the waste management process such as generation, source storage, primary collection, secondary storage, transportation, processing and disposal. At each stage, it is possible to reduce waste and also recycle some of the waste. In Karnataka, the process of collection, transportation and disposal of MSW is not complete in most of the cities/towns with garbage heaps remaining unattended until the severity reaches unmanageable proportions. While handling of MSW is the responsibility of the respective ULBs, separate statutes and institutional frameworks address hazardous wastes, and biomedical wastes. Though collection efficiency is very high in Bangalore, treatment and disposal facilities have to be improved. Some of the key issues in solid waste management in Bangalore are lack of awareness about ways to reduce waste, limited community involvement, limited waste treatment and disposal facilities. A lot can, and needs to be done to address these issues. The best practices implemented in places like Surat, and Vellore (Exnora Model) and also Puttur and Karwar can be taken as the starting point. Though these are implemented on a smaller scale, there aresome lessons that can be learned. Efficient and sustainable waste management can be achieved only through active involvement by all stakeholders, especially citizens. An efficient waste management system also entails efficiency at each stage of the waste management cycle The aim of a good waste management system should be to reduce waste as much as possible. This can be done by segregating waste at the source of generation so that waste that can be reused can be sent for recycling. A decentralized model of waste management can be adopted so that the onus of waste management is not on the Municipality alone. Special considerations would have to be given to regions inhabited by the poorer sections of the society. Incorporating these recommendations would help to improve the solid waste management scenario in Bangalore.