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Community Efforts Key To Management Of Solid Waste In India: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri
In a recent event, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri spoke about the government plans of achieving effective waste management in the country and said how that goal can be fulfilled with more citizen and community participation
New Delhi: “Our efforts to Clean India through Swachh Bharat Mission by October 2, 2019, have already yielded significant positive results and all indicators so far are pointing towards fulfilling this national goal. If municipal solid waste management is done through proper planning and management, it would lead to income generation and business in the country,” said Minister of State of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri during World Habitat Day celebrations on the theme of ‘Municipal Solid Waste Management’ in New Delhi.
Addressing the gathering, the minister further spoke about the progress of solid waste management projects in India under Swachh Bharat Mission, he added,
In India, almost 88.4 megawatts (MW) of energy is generated from waste-to-energy (WTE) projects and the waste-to-compost production stands at 15.69 Lakhs metric tonnes. Currently, the coverage of solid waste management in the country has risen from 17 per cent to 35 per cent and to improve it further in next two to three months time, lot of hard work is needed.
Mr Puri also emphasised on the need for behavioural change among citizens and said,
The key to sustain projects related to the management of municipal solid waste is the behavioural change and citizen or community participation in Solid Waste Management (SWM). A significant outlay has been allocated for SWM projects in the country over the years.
He also urged Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to concentrate on managing the solid waste by skilled municipal staff, adequate training and capacity building, and called upon national training institutions to intensify their efforts towards effective planning and management of urban services, especially management of municipal solid waste.
The current focus for the Government for the urban development has been considered as solid waste management along with increasing the sanitation coverage. As of now, as per the data provided by the government, 67,000 wards have managed to achieve 100 per cent door-to-door collection.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.