Failure of Waste Management in Def Col
Waste Management in Defence Colony is an unmitigated disaster. What is a greater disaster however, is most of us appear unconcerned. Can a colony remain an island of apathy when the entire city /country is clamouring for creating a waste free city/ country?
A quick glance at the newspapers will show us each day, entities like the Municipal Corporation, Government of Delhi and the Hon’ble Lt. Governor Delhi are out in the field, finding solutions to reduce the mountains of waste. Serious efforts are being made by MCD Central Zone with the Deputy Commissioner and his team each day, at various wards of this zone creating awareness programmes on preventing use of plastic carry bags, disposing prayer material around the neck of pipal trees, cleaning up the Yamuna riverfront. Recently the Dy Commissioner CZ was at the Defence Colony Mandir, holding awareness and educational conversations with the Mandir and other religious prayer spaces, on sustainable disposal of puja waste being generated.
Defence Colony started an Informational Educational Communication (ICE) programme in year 2017 to create awareness amongst householders on the necessity of waste segregation. While this was by and large well received, ironically stiff resistance was encountered from the RWA of the time that wrote to MCD and scuttled the ICE programme. Thereafter the waste program assumed shambolic proportions, portraying Defence Colony as a Zero Waste colony; But was our colony really ever a zero-waste colony? Consider the following facts:
- No segregation of waste at source (households) into wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste.
- No segregation of waste at Dhalows into recyclable, non-recyclable, inert and medical waste.
- No segregation of wet and dry waste
- Dry leaves and horticultural waste being dumped at the Dhalows, whereas strictly prohibited and has to be composted at source.
The primary responsibility of managing waste lies upon the generator of waste, which effectively means households and establishments must segregate their waste and deliver it to the waste collecting pickup vehicles as wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste.
Furthermore, the primary space for managing waste being the Dhalows are completely in shambles, the Waste Bins at the Dhalows at broken and in disuse. With MCD regressively closing down Dhalows, space required for waste segregation and for scientific waste management is being reduced consequently, mixed waste is being dispatched through compactors to the Waste to Energy Plants (WTE) for incineration. Such incineration emits poisonous Dioxins and Furans which is extremely hazardous to the health and well-being of citizens.
The question therefore is, are we being responsible citizens by being apathetic to a crying need for our health and well-being? The answer is clearly NO. We cannot be oblivious of the necessity of segregating waste, reusing recyclables, and creating compost or energy from wet waste. The hour for residents to assume greater community responsibility is well past, yet if we make a concerted effort, we can make up for lost time. Let’s start managing our waste scientifically.
