Gangtok fares well; Imphal lags behind 

• 14 out of 17 wards in Gangtok reflect a high segregation percentage
• Gangtok gets 3 Leaves Award in the CSE Assessment while Imphal bags the 2 Leaves Award
• Only 2 wards in Imphal segregate waste at source 

New Delhi, June 7, 2018:“Sweeping cities is only a small part of the solution to the problem of keeping our cities clean – what is more important is sustainable treatment, recycle and reuse of the waste that they generate,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), while announcing the awards for most efficient management and segregation of waste by Indian cities which are members of the Forum of Cities that Segregate. 

CSE has been working with cities to promote and implement source-segregation and decentralized model of waste management. To scale up its impact, CSE had launched the ‘Forum of Cities that Segregate’ on December12, 2017. The Forum now has 26 members – from the North Eastern states, Gangtok (Sikkim) and Imphal (Manipur) feature in the list. 

CSE released here today the 2017-18 assessment report of the performance of 20 of these 26 Forum cities. Based on the findings of the assessment report, the best performers were selected and the Leaves Awards conferred on them. 

The cities were assessed based on their performance in the six months since the Forum was launched. The parameters included segregation at source, collection, transportation, wet waste and dry waste processing, adoption of decentralised systems, the inclusion of informal sector in municipal systems and adoption and enforcement of SWM bye-laws and enforcement of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. 

The North Eastern report card

• In Gangtok, 14 out of the 17 wards have a high segregation percentage. About 90 per cent of the commercial establishments such as shops etc. segregate waste at source. Fourteen wards are covered under door-to-door collection.
• About 23 tonnes of wet waste is treated every day; 510 households in Arithang, a ward in Gangtok are treating wet waste via composting.
• In Imphal, only 2 wards are segregating at source. Door-to-door collection is outsourced to a local NGO notified by Imphal Municipal Corporation. All the wards are covered under door to door collection where waste is collected from households, commercial & institutional establishments and bulk generators and has 100 per cent collection efficiency.
• About 52 tonnes of wet waste is treated via pit composting and the compost produced is being outsourced to a local agro-based While about 63 per cent of dry waste is being stored in the storage facility at Lamdeng.
• Both the cities are yet to adopt the bye-laws as per Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. However, Gangtok is enforcing some of the major provisions of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.

For more details and to access CSE’s resources on waste management, please contact Parul Tewari of The CSE Media Resource Centre, parul@cseindia.org / 9891838367.