Forum of cities that segregate

CSE organized its first Regional meeting for Eastern and North-eastern states under its initiative ‘Forum of Cities that Segregate' on 8th February 2019 in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The meeting was organised in coordination with Urban Development and Housing Department (UD&HD), Bihar. The meeting was attended by 100 urban local bodies which included representation from Commissioners, Additional commissioners, Executive officers and Mayors from all over Bihar and cities such as Imphal, Gangtok, Ambikapur, Aizawl, Cuttack, Bundu etc.

The meeting started with a site visit of participants to a few wards in Muzaffarpur to see the collection of segregated waste and to the processing centre. The visit was organized by the Commissioner, Muzaffarpur who interacted with officials and addressed their queries. Over a period of two years, Muzaffarpur has become one of the cleanest cities in Bihar with all 49 wards segregating waste at source and with segregation percentage of over 80%. The city has currently  three processing centres which also includes Bihar’s first learning centre on composting. The programme was inaugurated by the Minister of Urban Development and Housing Department, Mr. Suresh Kumar Sharma. The inaugural session was also attended by Chandra Bhushan, DDG, CSE along with the Special Secretary, Mr. Sanjay Dayal and Mayor and Commissioner of Muzaffarpur. CSE's report on Çharting the future of City Compost' was released in the inaugural session. The Minister urged all participating cities to adopt sustainable waste management practices and replicate good practices.

The next session discussed the successful waste management models and had presentations from Panchgani, Mysuru, Ambikapur, Gangtok, Gaya, Munger, Kakching and Muzaffarpur. This was followed by the session on strengthening gaps in existing municipal systems which discussed municipal byelaws, dry waste management and how to decide which technology is feasible for processing waste.

In the concluding session, DDG, CSE discussed with cities the need to become pioneers in waste management through this forum and also help other cities to adopt sustainable waste management practices. This was followed by distribution of membership certificate to new forum cities. The Forum now comprises of over 80 cities.