Muzaffarpur (Bihar), October 2, 2018: Muzaffarpur is emerging as a shining example of a clean city for other urban centres in Bihar – and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is playing a role in making this happen. The Swachhata Swasthya Samridhi programme, launched in the city in December 2016 by the Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation (MMC) in association with CSE and ITC Ltd, has focused on making the city a model in solid waste management.
Today, the city crossed another major milestone – on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Bihar’s first solid waste processing site to convert organic waste into compost fertiliser was inaugurated here. Bihar’s Urban Development and Housing Minister, Suresh Kumar Sharma, launched the facility.
“This is an important milestone for Muzaffarpur. It is the first city in Bihar to set up a fully functional waste processing site and the only city in the whole of north India to have above 70 per cent waste segregation at source. Solid waste management is a citizen’s movement in Muzaffarpur today,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, CSE.
“By January 1, 2019, all 49 wards of Muzaffarpur will have segregation practised at source, along with five model centres to make compost fertiliser and process recyclable wastes like plastics, glass, metals etc,” Bhushan added.
Almost two years into the programme, Muzaffarpur is now amongst the cleanest cities in Bihar. About 70 volunteers have been working to do door to door propagation to educate residents on segregation of waste into wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste. “Muzaffarpur is the first city in Bihar to have its own solid waste management bye-laws and is enforcing the ban on plastic carry bags which was recently announced by the state government,” said Sanjay Dubey, municipal commissioner, MMC.
“We are making money out of waste. So far, we have sold two tonnes of compost. Once all processing centres are operational, we can produce 25 tonnes of compost every day which will be sold to farmers and residents,” added Dubey.
The city has also seen improvement in its Survekshan rankings this year. “It ranked 4th out of the 32 cities in Bihar in the recent Swachh Survekshan 2018, a big jump from last year’s 9th rank,” said Swati Singh Sambyal, programme manager, solid waste management, CSE.
Inaugurating the new facility, the minister said: “I am thankful to CSE, ITC and MMC for working hard to make cleanliness achievable in Muzaffarpur. I also thank the people of Muzaffarpur for making an important contribution towards swachhta.”
“Waste is wealth. We are implementing the most effective model of waste management -- frugal and wealth generating – that can be replicated across India. The time has come for everyone to join hands and make history in Muzaffarpur, to make it the cleanest city in whole of north India,” said Bhushan.
For more details, please contact Souparno Banerjee of The CSE Media Resource Centre, souparno@cseindia.org / 9910864339.
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