ENVIRONMENTAL LAW FOR URBAN MANAGEMENT

Almitra H Patel,

Member, Supreme Court Committee for SWM in Class 1 Cities

50 Kothnur, Bagalur Rd, Bangalore 560077

almitrapatel@rediffmail.com

WASTE IS WEALTH

Since Vedic times, food wastes

returned to the soil for sustainable

farming. The plastic yug and urea

subsidies have destroyed this cycle.

Villages around cities suffer horrific

waste dumps, dogs, flies, smoke &

stench but feel helpless to protest.

WHY A PIL FOR SWM ?

Bangalore began dumping its waste

randomly on its beautiful outskirts for

want of official waste-disposal sites.

Capt Velu and I found this the case all

over India, during our 100-city Clean

India Campaigns by road in 1994 + 95.

WP 888/96 in SUPREME COURT

Filed against every State and U.T. + GoI, CPCB, 10 worst and 4 best cities.

1998 SC 8-member Committee formed and Interim Report presented to 400 municipal officials, on all aspects.

1999 Final Report approved by all 300 Class 1 Cities in “mini-referendum”

2000 MSW Mgt & Handling Rules

MSW Rules 2000Apply to all ULBs, pop over 20,000Mandatory to set up waste processing

and disposal facilities by 31.12.2003

Supreme Court will soon send case toevery State High Court for monitoring ULBs’ compliance with these Rules.

Citizens can approach the Amicus forredressal of city’s non-performance.

Key RecommendationsKeep Wet and Dry wastes unmixed at source until collected at fixed time.

Daily doorstep collection of wet wastefor Composting. Landfill only rejects.Dry wastes left to informal recyclers.

City must not mix any debris (malba), drain silt or road dust in garbage collection. Use 2nd shift trip if reqd.

THE BEST WAY TO KEEP STREETS CLEAN IS NOT TO

DIRTY THEM:AIM FOR BIN-LESS CITIES

Calcutta uses its normal handcarts & staff at no extra charge to citizens. 80% cooperation in residential areas.

Nasik loads directly from homes into tipper trucks, to handle waste once only.

Most cities use 4-6-bucket handcarts.

EXISTING MPL ACTS ARE GOOD ENOUGH

No additional legislation is reqd, as

SR Rao showed with Additional

Cleaning Charges in Surat, or Mumbai

does for Apartments: wet-waste only.

Bangalore’s official policy is for wet-

dry collection in separate bins in cart

SCHOOL KIDS CLEANED UP COORG DISTRICT

They bring all thin-plastic waste from home to school one day a week.

A waste-buyer visits schools weekly.

Funds are collected class-wise and

Used at end of term for Eco-Clubs.

Parents cooperate wonderfully !

RECYCLING of DRY WASTES NEEDS HELP

SEWA Ahmedabad is best, all-India

SNDT Pune has rag-pickers’ Union

PCMC provides waste-sorting and storage space, + eqpt at dump to recycle plastic by Mahila Sangha

Mumbai gives PET collection space

ENCOURAGE RECYCLING THRU PROACTIVE POLICIES

Provide waste-sorting & storing spaces. 

Promote eco-parks with quality power and soft loans for pollution control eqpt, to bring recyclers into the mainstream.

 

Change PWD codes and specifications to include beneficial new technologies like waste-plastic-modified bitumen roads and fly-ash use in bricks, embankments and highways.

START by CLEANING SLUMS

A City is only as clean as its Dirtiest Areas.

Slums are the easiest to clean and the most cooperative.

Mumbai uses ‘take-away bins’ in Slum Adoption Schemes.

B’lore has trucks stop at gate.

MINIMISE WASTES !

Mumbai ALMs reduce wastes by 90%

Spraying Delhi’s dalao with bioculture

reduced monthly clearance trips from

30 to just 6 ! Savings pay for treatment

Campus-composting services are “in”.

Require this for all large public spaces

Hotel wastes go to Food Banks or pigs

COMMERCIAL AREAS COOPERATE THE LEAST

Charge them “Polluter-Pays” user

fees and modify the cleaning hours.

Require each ground-flr shop/office

to keep its frontage-width clean

including pavement + drain.

New By-laws may be needed for this.

DEBRIS MANAGEMENTDumped on streets or vacant plots at night

May need new Bylaws for Fines after Noticeor walls around vacant plots (Rajkot) orclearance on payment (Chennai, Ghaziabad).

Collect volume-based deposit on Plan-Sanction

Start Debris Hot-line to link buyers & producers.

Bldg materials must move on-site below 1st slabor confiscate & collect separately for city’s use.

PLAN for CLEAN CITIES

when adding Wards or planning Layouts:

Parking and washing space for handcarts

Dry-Waste sorting and storage spaces

Parking for take-away trucks at markets

Hospital-waste-management sites / space

Debris exchanges,waste-for-fuel or feed.

ZONING PLANS :

Move livestock out to planned zones before adding or developing new areas

Plan dispersed space for Hawking Zones

Zones for migrant construction labour, and plan for those who will stay back.

Affordable –Housing Zoning for slum-free cities, with sites-and-services.

REGULATIONS FOR CLEAN CITIES :

Sale Deeds to have clauses for :

Not mixing wet and dry wastesRainwater-harvesting, groundwater recharge

Common toilets+ water in pvt societies & temporary toilets during construction

Cleanliness of frontages till road centre if any ground-floor offices or shops.

SPECIAL ROLE OF DEVLPMT AUTHORITIES

Avoid unserved Twilight Zones:

Waste clearance from Day One by DA or private agents, with user fees and Polluter-Pays for trade-wastes.

AVOID unsustainable NGO Pilot projects that seek capital + operating funds !

Give area to ULB when 50% occupied.

SITES FOR WASTE MGT

MSW Rules Sch III 1. asks Development

Authorities to identify and hand over

sites to ULB;State UD Dept to coordinate.

Don’t just look for “available” Revenue land.

Identify the most suitable site, then

lease, buy or acquire it at market rates.

Waste - processing + disposal sites lie mostly

out side ULB limits & always face NIMBY resistance

So there must always be advance

involvement of local residents in an

advisory committee, plus ‘Polluter Pays’

compensation to the host Panchayat or

Ward by the ULB or State by way of

better infrastructure, facilities, payment.

NEVER start open-dumping of waste in a ‘proposed’ waste - processing site !

No matter how desperate the need for space, do it right or not at all.

 

Ground - water can be polluted in one downpour, and take 15 years to clean up. 

Waste stabilisation in windrows

is quick, easy & inexpensive (Pune,Blr) using EM. Powerpoint available.

Urgently declare the mandatory Buffer Zones of

No-New-Development around existing and identified waste-processing + disposal sites.

 When new homes, schools and industries

spring up around such once - ideal sites,

protests for shifting of the compost plant

begin even before it can come up,

supported by the unplanned-builder lobby.

Proceed aggressively to compost all city wastes

and thus meet India’s annual shortfall of 6 million tons of organic manures to

 * drought-proof our dry-land agriculture,

 * reclaim our degraded soils,

* revegetate mining overburdens, 

* reduce pollution of peri-urban areas.

State Agriculture and Fertiliser Ministries should prepare a joint Action Plan

to ensure locally available and affordable city compost use along with chemical fertilizers.

Combined use ensures three times betteruptake of urea by crops and prevents nitratepollution of ground-water by unbalanced over-use of urea or Nitrogenous fertilisers

Such Integrated Plant Nutrient Management ( IPNM ) gives excellent yields without depleting soil quality over time.

Avoid seeking “free” Waste-To-Energy (WTE)

options which never work

33 feasibility reports + 17 MOUs over 5

years = not a single working WTE plant,

several scams, 2 convictions and a

pretence at pelletisation.

There are no “free” BOOT schemes.

The public pays the hidden penalties for quality, quantity & counter-guarantees

WTE costs 13 times more for waste

processing and 3-9 times more for power!e.g. Lucknow’s Rs 65 crores for 125 tons a

day and an impossible 5 MW, with 15 cr subsidy from MNES.

A 125 tpd compost plant costs 5crore.

One MW conventional power costs 4-6 crores for thermal or hydel energy

ENGINEERED LANDFILLSSpecified in MSW Rules for all, to prevent

leachate from undigested waste or rainfall on wastes from entering ground-water.

A good one at Pune costs Rs 2 cr for 600tpd for 2-3 yrs life. There is also one at Nasik.

Fully lined landfills are not really reqd for v v small towns or in very dry areas.

??? May seek case-by-case exemption from SPCB for these locations, taking care to collect domestic haz-wastes separately.

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM FOR CLEAN CITIES

Running a city efficiently and keeping

it clean every day requires exceptional

skills, commitment and dedication at all

levels.

 

Administrative reforms can help create

an improved working climate for this.

Train tomorrow’s City Managers today, for tomorrow’s

urban problems and solutions.

Use the skills of our Navaratna City Managers (India’s unsung heroes) as trainers in our IAS Academies.

Both IAS + Public Service Commission curricula need full-scale courses on waste mgt. Also training programs in SWM issues for new Corporators.

Appoint City Managers on 2-3-year fixed-term contracts

to ensure peak results.

Cities, like Companies need annual, three-year and ten-year plans and a Perform-or-Perish work culture.

 

‘Frequent transfers’ at whim at a day’s notice play havoc with effective planning, execution and morale, and the cost of failed long-term planning is incalculable.

Replace a culture of mistrust with a culture of faith

Each person assigned any responsibilityshould automatically have some financialauthority to go with the respective post, eg

1 Day’s salary as automatic discretionary imprest allowance for Class 3 staff,

1 Wk’s pay to Cl. 2 staff for ‘stitch-in-time’ action 1 Month’s salary as imprest for Class 1 officers Delegation of fiscal powers will make ahuge difference to grievance redressal,on-road efficiency, productivity & costs.

The interests of the few must never over-ride the interests of the many : Be up - front

about Labor Reform  The poorest always suffer the most from

uncleaned cities & creeping privatisation

thru recruitment freezes while cities grow.

Triple the job openings in SWM by

exempting waste mgt services from the

Contract Labour Act, and privatise as much

% of city area as staff shortage %. Eg A.P.

Strengthen city financesAllow City Managers and/or elected bodies

their 74th Amendment autonomy to raise resources in their respective ways with-out requiring State Govt assent for this.

 

Index all items of city income annually to the cost-of-living index to stay in tune with reality.

This avoids the populist deferment of needed increases till after elections. All political parties can act in the name of such blanket rules.

Promote public-pvt partnership

Ensure credible payment mechanisms thru fool-proof payment guarantees throughBanks. If payments, agreements or grantsare delayed, parties will simply run away.  

Avoid unrealistic demands for waste-processors to bear waste-transport costsor pay royalties. Hygienic wasteprocessing and disposal is a social cost,easily met by more disciplined waste-collection that excludes debris and silt.

Enforce Producer Responsibility

Cities are banning Paan Paraag etc.

Similarly require take-back schemes, esp of wasteful or hard-to-recycle packaging.

Require take-back of PET bottles at producers’ cost, not cities’ and citizens’.

New industries here must conform to their home-country environmental standards.