NEWS in brief
Global Highlights
India revises its solid waste management rules
The Environment Ministry of India has revised its Solid Waste Management Rules after 16 years , to encourage citizens to do something to prevent the waste to wealth by following ‘ recovery , reuse and recycle ’ principles wherever possible .
The rules are now far more widely applicable ; extending beyond municipal areas and into urban agglomerations , census towns , notified industrial townships , areas under the control of Indian Railways , airports , airbases , ports and harbours , defence establishments , special economic zones , State and Central government organizations as well as places of pilgrims , religious & historical importance .
Waste will have to be segregated in to three streams , Wet ( biodegradable ), Dry ( plastic , paper , metal , wood , etc .) and domestic hazardous wastes ( nappies , napkins , empty containers of cleaning agents , mosquito repellents , etc .) before being handed to authorized rag-pickers or waste collectors or local bodies .
No one is allowed to throw , burn , or bury their solid waste on streets , open public spaces outside their premises , or in the drains or water bodies .
Waste generators will have to pay a ‘ user fee ’ to waste collectors and could be given a ‘ spot fine ’ for littering and non-segregation of waste .
Used sanitary waste such as nappies and sanitary pads will have to be wrapped securely in pouches provided by manufacturers or brand owners of these products or in a suitable wrapping material and be placed in with the dry / non- bio-degradable waste .
Addressing the press , Prakash Javadekar , Environment Minister , stated that waste processing facilities will be set up by all local bodies within three years , with those having populations of 1m or more having to do so within two years .
The Government has also constituted a Central Monitoring Committee under the chairmanship of Secretary , Ministry of Environment , Forest and Climate Change to monitor the overall implementation of the rules .
Ending Open Defecation and Achieving a Clean and Healthy Rural India
A new $ 1.5 billion World Bank program will support the Government of India in implementing the rural component of the Swachh Bharat Mission ( SBM ), or the Clean India Mission .
The Mission is the country ’ s largest-ever drive to improve sanitation . It was launched by the Government of India in 2014 with the aim of ending open defecation by 2 Oct , 2019 , Mahatma Gandhi ’ s 150th birth anniversary . The program also seeks to ensure that communities sustain their open defecation free status , and improve the management of liquid and solid wastes . World Bank support will help accelerate results in India ’ s states by giving them performance-based incentives .
Improving sanitation in the villages has proved to be one of India ’ s greatest development challenges . Three out of five people in rural India suffer the indignity of defecating in the open . Girls and women have to venture out before dawn or after dark , leaving them vulnerable to harassment . One in every ten deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation . And nearly 44 million children under five remain stunted , robbed of the chance to achieve their full potential . All told , the country loses the equivalent of 6 percent of GDP due to inadequate sanitation .
Past efforts to address this problem have had little success . Although toilets were built , without adequate motivation to use them , village people often continued to adhere to centuries-old practices , and abandoned the new toilets or put them to alternative uses .
Building on lessons learnt from past experience , the new Mission will use trained facilitators to motivate people to use toilets by addressing the cultural and behavioral patterns that have prevented them from doing so . Once the desire to use toilets is established , villages will be placed in charge of drawing up their own plans to end open defecation . The facilitators will help villagers choose where to build the new toilets and masons will be trained to construct the kind of toilets that are best suited to the local terrain .
While budgetary resources and technical assistance are being made available from the central government , states will have the flexibility to adopt the messages and methods that resonate most with the social and cultural sensibilities of their people .
Implementation on the ground will be monitored . A national sample-survey of rural sanitation will be conducted every year by independent third-party agencies . Sanitation improvements will be measured in terms of the number of rural people who have stopped open defecation , whether villages have sustained their open defecation-free status , and the improvements they have
8 Africa Water , Sanitation & Hygiene • May - June 2016