City: Bengaluru

Have you ever looked closely at the plastic packaging waste that you place in your recycling bin? Whether the bags, containers, bottles, wrappers, toys, packaging materials are branded or unbranded? What are the brand names? How are they classified? Do you know what the numbers on the packaging mean? Do all plastic waste actually get recycled? According to Sowmya Raghavan, Member, Solid Waste Management Focus Group, Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), “All recyclables are not recycled, and all items in the recycle bin are not recyclable." So have you ever thought about conducting an audit of your plastic waste? If yes,…

In Bengaluru, more than two-thirds of plastic waste comprise household products like personal care and food packaging, dominated by milk packaging (KMF, Dodla, Heritage, Milk Mist etc.), which contributes a big chunk of such waste. The use of plastic packaging material has increased over the years particularly with the growth of e-com companies, with Amazon leading the list. Among product companies, the leading brands which use a lot of plastic material to package their products include Unilever, Coca Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, ITC and Britannia. These are the findings from a plastic brand audit exercise, conducted in September 2021. Hasiru Dala…

High allocations for Bengaluru in State budget Presenting the State budget 2022-23, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also handles the finance portfolio, said that the State's revenues have increased. He did not propose to impose any new tax. He announced allocation of Rs 3,661 crore to all 28 assembly segments in Bengaluru, up from allocation only for BJP MLAs' constituencies earlier. The CM also said that Rs 8,409 crore has been allocated for the comprehensive development of Bengaluru. Of this, Rs 1,500 crore has been earmarked to develop mega stormwater drains to prevent floods. An 'Atal Bihari Vaypayee park' of…

Will well-intentioned idealism end what has been a relatively golden period for Bengaluru's lakes? The rapid unplanned "development" on the then outskirts of the city in the early 2000s was destroying water bodies that had existed for hundreds of years. But thanks to a reasonably good partnership between Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and different citizen-led groups, the last 10 years saw the revival of many of Bengaluru's lakes. Citizen participation in lake maintenance In the summer of 2011, BBMP, the custodian of most of Bengaluru's lakes, decided to hand over maintenance of 13 lakes to non-governmental entities through Memorandums…

Citizen activism and public pressure forced BBMP, Bengaluru's city government to start convening ward committee meetings in 2018. Citizens and officials have since been making efforts to keep the committees functional and effective. But issues like representation and ensuring regular and effective ward committee meetings need urgent attention. There is the additional issue of the absence of elected municipal corporators since September 2020, since they have to chair their respective ward committees Ward committees are presently functioning informally. Srinivas Alavilli, Head - Civic Participation, Janaagraha, says a system has been put in place for the proper functioning of ward committees.…

BBMP has spent over 100 crores on fixing, remodelling, and maintaining drains in just one ward - HSR Layout. Their Stormwater Drain Department does not maintain records like work registers or the progress reports of works. BBMP has been indicted for ineffective and inefficient collection of waste, non-compliance with waste management rules, and lack of scientific processing facilities at landfill sites. These are just three instances of impropriety and poor performance in local government bodies.All these are issues that citizens should demand accountability from their elected reps and officials. One easy way to be aware of such issues is to…

How has Bengaluru city's sweeping transformation over the last 30 years impacted its street-based sex workers? Bengaluru, which has no specific red light area, has hosted a vast landscape for street-based sex work – a category of informal labour that is not strictly illegal, but is considered undesirable and in urgent need of rescue and rehabilitation. However, in the last three decades, the meaning of ‘public space’ has undergone a dramatic change in Bengaluru, alongside the definition of who ought to legitimately constitute the ‘public’ or 'desirable worker'. Consequently, an entire ecology around street-based sex work has slowly disintegrated, pushing…

Metro reduces emissions: Study A study by Bangalore University’s Department of Environmental Science showed that the air quality at six locations along Namma Metro Phase-II improved between 2017 and 2021. The study measured air quality at the following Metro corridors — Mysuru Road Terminal to Kengeri, Puttenahalli Cross to Anjanapura Township, Gottigere to Nagawara, RV Road to Bommasandra, Krishnarajapuram Byapanahalli to Whitefield, and Hesaraghatta Cross to BIEC. The PM2.5 concentration recorded at all the sampling stations were within the limit of 60µg/m3 prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board. PM10 had exceeded the prescribed limit of 100µg/m3 in 2017, but…

‘Decoding Everyday’ is a citizen science portal which invites contributions from individual residents, student communities, RWA members and anyone interested to share their experiences and stories about streets and public spaces in cities. It is an initiative of the Bangalore-based Everyday City Lab (ECL) that was recently selected to be a part of the Citizen Innovation Lab’s (CIL) ‘Six-week Sprint’ within its Civic Tech program. Under this program, CIL supports initiatives to develop technologies that enable citizens to engage with the government and/or communities to work towards civic participation in governance. The Everyday City Lab recently launched a series of…

Bengaluru, a rapidly expanding landlocked city without proximity to major water sources such as rivers, is largely dependent on its groundwater resources. And with summer fast approaching, the city’s water needs will only increase even as its availability declines. Bengaluru is blessed with rains throughout the year, which makes it ideal for rainwater harvesting. Even though Bengaluru is listed as the second-highest in rainwater harvesting in Indian cities, is it enough? According to a World Bank Group report, over the last 50 years, the total number of borewells in the country has grown from one million to 20 million, making…