Noida’s Waste Collection System To See A Revamp In 2018 As Authorities Focus On Segregation

New Delhi: Urban waste management in India continues to be a misshapen territory, plagued with the problems of inadequate manpower in the hands of municipalities and lack of infrastructure. With space shrinking in urban areas across the country, and population burgeoning, waste generation has only gone up without urban civic bodies completely in control of either waste collection or segregation. The narrative has however, undergone a change in the past two years, ever since the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’s waste management objectives saw gradual implementation across urban municipalities. Noida authorities on January 16 declared their intention to revamp their waste collection system

Presently, Noida does not have a designated landfill site for waste disposal, resulting in mounds of waste along the city’s streets. Despite being a well-planned urban area, Noida’s waste problems rise from the absence of a proper landfill and a proper door-to-door waste collection programme. The waste segregation rate for the city, presently at around 40 per cent, also needs to improve. Under the new waste collection system, the Noida authority plans to hire a private agency for door-to-door collection of waste, setup a scientific landfill site and waste-to-energy plant and increase the percentage of waste segregation.

The decision to handover the responsibility of collecting garbage comes after contractors hired by the Noida authorities have not been entirely successful in their endeavour to collect garbage. After reports emerged over the last two years of irregular collection and transportation of garbage, the authorities have now decided to handover the reigns of garbage collection to one private agency that will be in charge of collecting and transporting garbage across Noida. The tender to select a garbage collection agency will be issued soon.

We are planning to give the garbage collection responsibility to one single agency which will be in charge. That way, we can monitor the process better and also hope that a singular agency will make the whole collection mechanism more effective, said Anil Kumar Sharma, Project Engineer, Noida Authority.

Along with plans to handover garbage collection to a private agency, Noida authorities have also planned to begin another round of active campaigning to popularise waste segregation among building owners. The Waste Management Rules of 2016 will be once again popularised among residential communities, which must segregate their waste if built on an area of 5,000 square kilometres or more. Garbage segregation has been sporadic in Noida, and since many sectors are yet to witness segregation on a regular basis, the Noida authority is hopeful that its drive will bring more people onboard for waste segregation.

The city continues to wait for environmental clearance on its proposed waste-to-energy plant in Sector 123. Since the setting up of a proper waste-to-energy plant will take at least a year, if not more, the Noida authorities are stressing on waste segregation and composting to lessen the burden of daily waste generation of 600 metric tonnes.

We are stressing on segregation and composting in RWAs so that the daily waste generation can come down. In the absence of a proper landfill or waste-to-energy plant, handling 600 metric tonnes of garbage daily is a challenge. If the number comes down with segregation across RWAs, schools and office buildings, the rest of the garbage can be safely transported to nearby landfills till we setup one of our own, said Mr Sharma.

Noida is no exception to the problem of waste and surrounding apathy, but is indeed trying hard to improve its municipal services. In December 2017, Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar had directed the Noida authorities to improve civic services by June 2018. Though the setting up of a waste-to-energy plant in the next six months will not be possible, proper segregation and waste collection across Noida will definitely improve the city’s garbage scenario.

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