Meeting to discuss waste management in commercial areas and wet waste management in Muzaffarpur, Bihar

May 26-27, 2017

I. Background

‘Swachhtha Swasthya Samridhi’ programme was launched on 15th December, 2016 in Muzaffarpur. The objective of the programme is to achieve 100 percent source segregation and make the city a Zero Landfill city. Under the programme, the 49 wards of the city shall be transformed into clean wards by September 2017 through the joint efforts of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation (MMC). Out of 49 wards, 5 wards (1 circle) have completed propagation and distribution of bins. 45 volunteers have been hired to spread the message of cleanliness in the city. Segregated waste – wet, dry, domestic hazardous is being received from first five wards. Daily, three tonnes of segregated wet waste goes to the composting site, near Town Hall while the recyclables are sold by collectors. This model also supports the livelihood of informal workers and collectors. There has been massive transformation in the five wards, over 80 percent segregation is achieved and littering has stopped.

II. Meeting to discuss waste management in commercial areas and wet waste management in Muzaffarpur, Bihar

Two half day meetings were conducted on 26th May, 2017 in J.K. Residency Hotel, Muzaffarpur, Bihar for bulk waste generator and wet waste management respectively. The meeting was jointly organised by CSE and MMC. 

1) Meeting for Waste Management in Commercial Areas

The objective of the meeting was to brief the stakeholders about the current interventions on solid waste management in the city and request the bulk generators to support and contribute to this programme by starting segregation at source. The meeting was attended by all the waste generators in the commercial areas such as hotels, institutions, marriage hall associations, chemist associations and members of the chamber of commerce. Altogether, 65 people attended the programme. 

Sessions 

The following sessions were taken during the meeting.

a) Brief background of existing work on Solid Waste Management (SWM) in Muzaffarpur: Swati Singh Sambyal, Programme Manager, CSE briefed the participants about the ongoing work on SWM Waste Management in Muzaffarpur. She discussed the timelines and objective of the programme in the city. She further explained how the five wards in the city have undergone massive behaviour transformation and have been segregating waste at source. A segregation efficiency of over 70 percent has been achieved in these 5 wards, which is commendable.  

b) Waste handling by commercial areas - provisions under the SWM Rules, 2016: Miss Sambyal discussed about how commercial areas can handle waste and manage it. She further emphasized on the need for urgency of implementing the SWM Rules 2016. Under the provisions, responsibilities of bulk waste generators have been introduced to segregate waste and handover segregated wastes to authorized waste-pickers or waste collectors or local bodies. All hotels and restaurants need to segregate waste into wet, dry and domestic hazardous and ensure that food/wet waste is utilized for composting / biomethanation. 

c) Mapping of existing practices adopted by bulk generators concerning solid waste management: The city manager, Ravish Verma, MMC briefed about the existing waste management practices in commercial areas of Muzaffarpur. As per Mr. Verma, garbage from commercial areas is being collected by municipal trucks and transported to Rautiniya dumpsite. Also, in April, 2017 a notice has been issued to all the commercial shops, hotels in Muzaffarpur to make provisions for implementation of SWM Rules, 2016. As per the notice commercial areas (hotels, markets) were to make arrangements to start segregation at source in their premises within 3 months of the notice period.

d) Round table on role and responsibility of commercial centres under SWM Rules, 2016:  A round table on role and responsibility of commercial centres under SWM Rules, 2016 was chaired and moderated by Chandra Bhushan, DDG, CSE. The stakeholders in commercial areas discussed about their existing problems and requested for support from the municipal corporation for the same. Further, the hotel industry assured that they are ready to comply under the provisions of SWM Rules, 2016 and shall start segregating at source, provided the corporation and volunteers in the city give them some initial training. They also agreed to pay user fee between 1500-2500 INR per month for this service from the corporation.

2) Wet waste management in Muzaffarpur

The objective of the meeting was to discuss “Wet Waste Management in Muzaffarpur” and to prepare an action plan to incentivize composting in the city. The meeting was attended by officials from State Agriculture Department, local composting & vermi-composting centres, fertilizers department and MMC officials. Altogether, 40 people attended the programme.

Sessions 

The following sessions were taken during the meeting:

a) Current incentives on composting under MoUD, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and Ministry of Agriculture: Ms Sambyal, CSE discussed the current incentives on composting under Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and Ministry of Agriculture. In the SWM Rules 2016, all gated communities and institutions with more than 5,000 sqm area shall, process segregated wet waste through composting or bio-methanation within the premises as far as possible. The Duties of Dept. of Fertilisers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers are to provide market development assistance (MDA) on city compost and ensure promotion of co-marketing of compost with chemical fertilisers. Also, MDA of Rs 1500/tonne of compost to the manufacturer and the marketer for scaling production and consumption of compost has been fixed by the Department of Fertilisers (DoF) as per the 2016 order.

b) Round table discussion on plan for decentralised composting centres in Muzaffarpur: A round table discussion on plan for decentralized composting centres in Muzaffarpur was chaired and moderated by Chandra Bhushan, DDG, CSE. The stakeholders, mainly from the state agriculture department were keen to understand the existing process of composting of wet waste received from the 5 wards. Also, they assured that once the first batch of city compost is ready, they would test the quality of the same. Also, there was discussion on marketing of city compost and the agriculture department assured that they would propagate the message of usage of city compost to farmers. Also, a few farmers, who are preparing vermi-compost and keen to experiment with city compost. These stakeholders expressed their willingness to take the segregated wet waste from few wards and compost it in their farms. 

3) Outcome of the workshop

(A) The following action plan needs to be adopted in order to ensure better waste management in commercial areas:

?MMC needs to map all the black spots in the city and prepare a timely action plan to clean such problem areas in the city.

?Bye laws of the city need to be framed by July, 2017 and to be cleared by the newly elected board. The bye-laws will also have provisions for segregation at source, penalty of non-segregation, payment of user-fee and fines for littering.

(B) The following action plan needs to be adopted for promotion of city compost and wet waste management 

?A standard Term of reference (ToR) shall be prepared to allow individuals/farmers/companies to process wet waste. Vendors/individuals with prior experience on composting only shall be allowed for handling of wet waste.  

?First batch of city compost from 5 wards to be handed over to agriculture department of the state for quality check. 

?State Agriculture department agreed to promote city compost to farmers in the nearby villages and help in creating market linkages for city compost. 

III. Public Lecture on Swachhta Swasthya Samridhi – Muzaffarpur, MDDM College, 27th May, 2017

A public lecture was given by Chandra Bhushan, DDG, CSE at Mahant Darshan Das Mahila Mahavidyalaya College, Muzaffarpur on 27th May 2017. The programme was attended by 200 participants including the students, staffs and the media.  

The objective of the public lecture was to sensitise the students on issues and challenges concerning India’s current State of Environment and how it is imperative for them to stop environmental degradation of Muzaffarpur, with respect to the existing status of solid waste management and sanitation. DDG, CSE presented the Cleanliness and Health factsheet of Muzaffarpur and highlighted the importance of the ongoing Swachhtha Swasthya Samridhi programme in the city. DDG presented the cleanliness factsheet of Muzaffarpur, where he describes about the generation of municipal waste and sewerage. Further, he explained about the health factsheet of Muzaffarpur and how they are interlinked.

At the end of the session, DDG, CSE asked the students to volunteer for this programme and spread the message of segregation across the city. He requested students to take an oath to make their city clean and participate in this movement for cleanliness.