Kerala dumps its waste, does not collect it - Indian Express

On July 5th Indian Express came out with a story on the pathetic situation of municipal solid waste management across the state of Kerala (see the link below):

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kerala-dumps-its-waste-does-not-collect-it/970383/0

It is indeed a very sorry state of affairs. For a problem of industrial dimensions, quacks are still chest beating on source segregation and decentralized solutions and activists are offering their hair-brained ideas on biogas and rag pickers, etc.. Some are hoping that the army of rag pickers will solve the problem! Its like going to traditional healers specialising in exhorcism while we have a full blown cardiac problem on hand (and there are no qualified cardiac surgeons around) !!  (whatever happened to 'Mother India needing organic carbon' paradigm!!). No wonder 'God's own country' is now finding itself buried under a mountain of trash. (BTW isn't it that the term 'God's own country' was coined by the party that professes atheism!?). 

Remember what we diagnosed back in 2006 ?! Wonder if you figure out that its all coming true after couple of thousand crores down the drain - The Thiruannanthpuram plant has been officially closed down, all the three plants in Vishakhapattanam have been shut down permanently, all the 10 odd plants constructed under the 'Air Force Station' scheme of the MoUD have closed or malfunctioning, and numerous others - of which I lose track !!

While we tried to convince the community, but we were shot down!! There was expectation that some day a PPP player with Midas touch will come and will convert all our trash into Gold (recently heard a senior IAS officer heading a 6 million + ULB claiming that trash is their asset !! see the previous post) !! Unfortunately the PPP market is now seeing new levels of aggressive bidding with unsustainably low tipping fee quotations !! Developers are wondering whether they can pull it off in the long run !! Operators themselves are wondering when they would be forced to close down operations. We are hoping that there will light some day ! Until then ....

God Bless

Recently during a discussion in the context of payment of tipping/gate fee to operators of MSW treatment plants, it was very interesting to hear a very senior municipal official say that "solid waste is our asset". My reaction to this was "Do they consider their open dumps of waste as fixed deposits?"

Our municipalities are still hoping that some day a private operator will provide Mida's touch and convert their MSW into gold ! With this as the over-riding paradigm, it is very difficult to help them realise the need for payment of gate fee to the operator in lieu of the essential service being rendered by the latter for (a) reducing waste volumes (b) rendering it safe for disposal into a landfill, and above all (c) assisting the former in discharging their constitutional responsibilities for protection of environment and public health.

With the concerns raised by the Hon. Minister of Urban Development recently on sustainability of MSW and sewage treatment plants, let's hope that we will soon hear the ULBs taking a call on this difficult issue.

It is interesting to note that some people at pretty high levels still consider solid waste management to be just 'brooming the streets' ! No wonder we miss the point and find ourselves in the present situation as seen across the entire urban India.

Wonder when the domain of MSW will be recognised as an operation involving 3 M - Material, Man and Machine and when sound industrial management principales for optimum performance on all the three fronts will be adopted ? Let's not forget that the bottom line is optimising the finances involved in capex and opex and deliver an acceptable level of service to the users/ customers.