An experiment by DRM Hyderabad in which myself and PCRA are proud to be partners.
Waste Management is not a dirty word anymore, in
fact, it subscribes to the adage ‘ Cleanliness is next to
Godliness’.
Like all Government sectors, the Indian Railways
too, provide housing facilities to its staff and the colonies
are huge. These colonies, provided with Health and
Conservancy components, are indeed, a legacy of the
British Raj. This legacy also includes an abundant
heritage of greenery in all the Railway colonies and
offices. Waste Management in Railway colonies is very
traditional and clockwork-like, in so far that the sanctity
of cleanliness is still maintained intact and is not
influenced by the civic & municipal element.
Waste Management of today calls for state of art
technology, with derivatives like ‘power generation’,
‘cooking gas’, ‘recycled water’ (clear and potable)
‘recycled paper’, ‘bio- composting’, and the likes. And
there are insurmountable hurdles as well, like for
example, not knowing what to do with the non biodegradable
plastic waste that has not been picked out
by the ‘Rag-pickers’, who are logically the ‘tongue in
cheek’ of the Modern Waste Management. The plastic
waste is one of the pollutants of our environment, simply,
because it refuses to be bio-degradable.
Sitaphalmandi Railway Colony, at Secunderabad,
is a small colony of about eighty residential units built in
multi-storied complexes. The colony was most eligible
to experiment with the concept of Bio-composting as
propogated by PCRA with the help of bio-enzymes
developed by the Bhavalkar Institute and marketed by
Samrudhhi.
The genesis of the experiment lay in the officials of
PCRA surveying and appraising the garbage disposal
method as existing at Secunderabad and counseling all
Officers and concerned Health staff of Hyderabad
Division with the help of video, about the concept and
practice of Bio-composting. This concept advocates
conversion of only bio-degradable garbage into compost
in specially constructed bins wherein the garbage is
treated with enzymes.
The actual experiment took off when I counseled
the residents ‘en mass’ in their community hall with the
help of video footage loaned by PCRA, about
segregating garbage into bio-degradable, (organic
wastes that slowly decompose into elements of nature)
which had to be collected in green baskets and non
bio-degradable, (polythene bags, synthetic clothes,
etc.), which had to be collected in blue baskets. The
residents were counseled to sell the waste paper to
the Kabadiwala.
A significant counseling to them was not to accept
non bio-degradable, polythene and plastic carry bags
from vendors to the extent possible, to thus prevent
environmental pollution.
A masonry garbage bin was constructed in the
colony itself, as per specifications of PCRA and
collection of garbage in the bin was started in right
earnest. To give impetus to the project, Health staff
were cajoled into collecting the segregated garbage
from each household and to dump the bio-degradable
waste into the bin. The non bio-degradable waste was
to disposed in the routine manner. Specified dosage of
bio-catalyst and bio-sanitizer were sprinkled on the
garbage in the bin and covering the same with stone
powder/dust
The saying that what is ‘well begun is half done’ is
not so true in all cases. A couple of days later, I inspected
the bin and was aghast to see some polythene bags
containing bio-degradable waste dumped into the bin.
The basic point of the project had not gone home. Was
it communication gap? Was it language problem?
I did a house to house counseling all over again,
armed with pamphlets citing the DOs and DON’Ts in
English and Telugu (the local language), physically
demonstrating the segregation of household garbage
A Small Step Towards
Modern Waste Management
Ms. Vandana Singhal (IRAS ‘76)
31
into bio-degradable and non bio-degradable and also
advising them not to dump bio-degradable waste in
POLYTHENE BAGS! (for God’s sake!). The polythene
bag is NON BIO-DEGRADBLE! My voice had turned
hoarse and my legs were aching by the time I completed
the counseling. To make matters worse, it was raining!
But my efforts paid off.
The process and reaction in the garbage bin, due to
addition of the Bio-enzymes did not emit any foul odour
nor attract flies and the residents have accepted the
location of the garbage bin in their vicinity. They have
been promised that the bio-compost (manure) that
eventually will be the product, could be shared amongst
them to nurture their garden and kitchen plants. The
garbage generated by the colony comprising of biodegradable
waste is being consumed by the bin and
the experiment has brought about savings in
transportation costs.
By chance Smt. Leena Mehendale, Joint Secretary
& Executive Director of PCRA read my article in ‘Chetna’,
PCRA’s publication and made a surprise visit to
Hyderabad. She was very much impressed by the
project and arranged for docu-filming of the same. Within
a month, the documentary was shot. It was premiered
at ICF, Chennai, on 27th May, 2005. The documentary
will be telecast on select channels.
After the success of the experiment at Sitafalmandi,
the project was extended to Moula-Ali and Kacheguda
Railway Colonies and as of now, there are 19 healthy
bins located in various railway colonies in the Twin Cities
and also at Nizamabad, catering to the garbage
generated by families living in 3800 residential quarters.
To be modest, the ghost of comparison has always
haunted me whenever I have undertaken colonies for
the project, and has brought to the fore, aspects that
are a revelation.
As an evolutionary step in handling of the project,
the five ‘day to day’ steps, that are the daily routine
measures, have been painted on the bins in 3 languages
to ensure, educate and keep the process alive. They
are:
1. Spread bio-waste
2. Spray bio-sanitized water
3. Sprinkle rock dust/sand
4. Spread horticulture waste, and
5. Spray bio-sanitized water
Memories of the Learning Experience
It was time to go to bed and I get this call on the
phone “Madam” the caller says, “we live opposite to the
BCP Bin No.2 and for the past two nights, cockroaches
are coming into our house. I told my husband to find
out, he’s just returned with his torch light, he says they
are all coming out of the bin and the bin is smelling
horrible”. My heart skipped a beat. “OK I said”. “I will
send my inspector across, the first thing in the morning.
It will be taken care of”.
I told the Health Inspector to be more careful with
the Bin. Bio-sanitized water was sprayed twice a day
but the problem persisted even after 3 days.
The Investigation
I personally went to the project site and checked
up the large water container into which Bio-sanitizer
crystals had been deposited. I had a hunch that if the
water in the container was not sanitizing the bin,
something should have gone wrong with the Biosanitizer.
I made my men search for the crystals; finally
I got all the water emptied through a strainer to get the
crystals. The crystals were missing. The Bio-sanitizer
crystals do not get depleted nor dissolve in water; the
loss weighed heavily on my mind. They were probably
lost during cleaning of the container or should have been
taken along with the water gushing into the spraying
can. Depositing the Bio-sanitizer in the water container
was risky, as the crystals are small and are likely to be
lost or gushed away while spraying in the composting
bin.
The Panacea
After some probes and tinkering, I found a simple
solution. I made a small cloth pouch, deposited a fresh
dose of Bio-sanitizer crystals inside, sealed the pouch
with stitches and with the help of a twine, hung it inside
the water container. The pouch is always kept dipped
in the water. Sanitization is achieved and the Biosanitizer
is safe and secure! This practice is now
followed at all the projects. As for the cockroaches and
foul odour, the menace ceased after just 3 days.
32
The Fond Farewell at Nizamabad Station
This is an amusing anecdote. The ‘mass counselling’
for the residents of the Railway colonies at Nizamabad
was in session with the help of power point presentation.
For convenience, the General Waiting Hall on Platform
No.1 had been chosen as the venue. As the counselling
progressed, passengers started crowding outside the
Waiting hall, just to know what was happening. I was
aware, a while later, Passenger Train No.564 bound for
Secunderabad had rolled in and halted on PF-1. The
Guard blew the whistle and the train started moving.
On instinct, I dashed towards the crowd of passengers
outside and asked them what was the train that they
intended to catch. They said they were to catch Train
No.564. I shouted, indicating that their train had started
moving. They all realized their folly and rushed towards
the train. I had to shout to the Guard to stop for the sake
of the passengers. I was surprised that five ladies
emerged with their luggage from among the audience
in the hall and rushed towards the train. The participants
were all over, helping them. I asked them that they were
passengers and not supposed to attend the counselling.
“You were speaking so nicely” they said, “ the programme
was so informative and good that we forgot that we were
here to catch the train!”. Soon, a laughter riot broke out
amidst all this commotion and I couldn’t go on with the
counselling.
I did not want any passenger to miss any train on
DRM’s account!
Some Revelations
1. Wherever this project has been implemented,
there is a 50% savings in manpower &
transportation costs, as the organic garbage,
the generation of which is more at colonies gets
consumed at the composting bin.
2. Mind-set plays a very important part in the
success of the project. Wherever residents were
with incorrigible mindset, the success rate of
the project took a dip.
3. Houses with children, particularly with
adolescents, contributed primarily to the
success of the project.
4. The expectancy of the residents towards
redressal of their maintenance problems is
100% and they weigh their participation on such
a comparative plank.
5. Leaders of all sorts crop up out of thin air, and
when they are told to take up responsibilities,
they vanish into the same thin air!
vvvvv
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