Municipal Solid Waste Has Become A Serious Health Issue, Says NITI Aayog And Recommends Setting Up Waste To Energy Plants

New Delhi: The government’s think-tank NITI Aayog says municipal solid waste in nearly all the cities has become a serious threat to public health, in a bid to overcome this challenge, it has suggested setting up an authority which will take up installation of waste to energy plants in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The Aayog underlined the fact that the cities have been “slow to develop effective ways” to dispose municipal waste and called for accelerated action to combat the problem.

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As per the 2011 census, 377 million people living in 7,935 urban centres generate 1,70,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily. Urban local bodies spend about Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 per tonne on solid waste management. Out of this, about 60-70 per cent is spent on the collection of waste and 20-30 per cent on transportation but almost nothing on its treatment and disposal.

The Aayog made the recommendations in its ‘Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20’, released by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently.

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To speed up the process of cleaning up municipal solid waste, it may be worth exploring the possibility of an authority at the Centre to spread the use of ‘waste to energy’. This authority will be called ‘Waste to Energy Corporation of India (WECI)’ and will be placed under the housing and urban affairs ministry, the Aayog said.

Just as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been instrumental in developing high-quality national highways through Public Private Partnership (PPP) across the country, the WECI may set up world class waste to energy plants through PPP mode across the country, it said.

The authority can play a “key role in fast-tracking coverage” of waste to energy plants across 100 smart cities by 2019, the Aayog said.

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