Sensitization Programme for Elected Representatives of Jharkhand

Venue: Centre for Science and Environment New Delhi

Date: 21-23rd November, 2017

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi conducted a training programme for elected representatives of Jharkhand under the capacity building initiative of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). The training programme was conducted from 21-23rd November, 2017 at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi.

The participants were Ward Parshads from 4 divisions of Jharkhand – Palamu, North Chotanagpur, South Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana. All the districts come under Swachh Bharat Mission, Housing for All and National Urban Livelihood Mission. 

The training oriented and sensitised the participating officials on urbanization scenario, AMRUT: objectives, convergence of urban missions, key environmental issues and challenges the country is facing currently, policy and reforms concerning air, water and waste. Followed by 2 day field visit to various sites across Delhi showcasing existing best management practices in the above sectors.

The training programme was inaugurated by Dr. Suresh Kumar Rohilla, Programme Director, Water Management, CSE who gave a session on Urban Sector Overview: Key issues and challenges during which he discussed the urbanisation scenario, issues and challenges faced by Indian cities and need for AMRUT reforms, specifically in Jharkhand. He also gave a brief overview on CSE’s engagement and what AMRUT is all about. He also detailed out the expectation from the AMRUT program and also the achievement this programme can bring in. 

Further, in the day, the technical sessions started with the lecture of Ms Priyanka Chandola, Programme Manager of Air Pollution team of CSE, who made the participants understand the problems related to air pollution and mobility in cities. She explained them the technical aspect and presented various case studies from different cities of India. The session was followed by a group exercise in which the participants were divided in four groups (as per the city division they have come from) inorder to make them understand the problems related to Air pollution and transportation management faced by them in their cities. During the wrap-up of the exercise all groups were invited to present their findings for further discussion.

Following this, Mahreen Matto, Programme Manager of Water Management team of CSE detailed out about the political economy of water, waste water and septage. She also talked about the convergence among the various urban missions. This was further clubbed with a class exercises which resulted in listing of issues and challenges, the cities are currently facing with regard to water and sanitation. The exercise followed the same pattern as discussed for the air pollution and transport exercise. 

Further the participants were taken to a small tour of CSE campus to showcase the Decentralised Waste Water Treatment System (DWWTS) and the Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) system installed within the campus. The day concluded with the session on waste as a whole, where in Neha Walani, Programme Officer of Solid Waste team at CSE talked about the municipal solid waste.  She also discussed some of the best practices across the country and pushed the ULBs for affordable decentralized solutions for waste management. 

The second and third day were kept exclusively for field visits, which included DWWTS at Delhi Jal Board campus in Karol Bagh (For more details click: http://cseindia.org/content/decentralised-wastewater-treatment-system-varunalaya-delhi-jal-board), Non-motorised Transport, Infrastructure and Design, Rain Water Harvesting system at Jamia Hamdard University (http://cseindia.org/content/rainwater-harvesting-system-jamia-hamdard-university-new-delhi), Household level waste management system at New Moti Bagh housing colony (http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/make-wealth-from-waste-47164) followed by a site visit to witness community level Door to door collection of segregated waste and composting in a sector in Gurugram on Day 3, respectively. 

At the end of third day, a feedback and training need assessment session was held which was moderated by Dr Suresh Rohilla, Director, Water Team along with the Mahreen Matto. The participants expressed their gratitude to the CSE staff members and informed that how confident they are to sensitized the best practices in their wards. The trainees felt capacitated as they have recognized their own strengths to meet the challenges and address the critical issues paving the way for successful implementation of different Mission. Some of them expressed their willingness to replicate small scale project on rainwater harvesting, solid waste management showcased during the site visits. The programme ended with the certificate distribution to the participants.