bangalore waste management solutions

https://soundcloud.com/citizenmatters/ep1-lessons-from-bengaluru-cm If you live in Bengaluru, you just cannot avoid the city's waste management problem. Footpaths that are stinking and littered with waste are a common sight. This first episode of 'Lessons from Bengaluru' podcast series explores Bengaluru's waste management problem, and what citizens are doing to address it. Sandhya Narayanan of the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) describes how the city's rapid growth from the early 2000s worsened the waste management problem. SWMRT has played a key role in identifying solutions to the issue and holding civic authorities accountable. Lalitha Mondreti, also part of SWMRT, explains the 2…

Waste pickers of Bengaluru working with Hasiru Dala, a nongovernmental organisation working on empowering waste pickers, submitted a memorandum to U T Khader, Minister of Urban Development and Housing, Karnataka, R. Sampath Raj, Mayor of Bengaluru; Sowmya Reddy, Member of Legislative Assembly, Karnataka, representing Jayanagara and Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner of Bengaluru. This was done on the occasion of Hasiru Habba, an annual gathering of waste-pickers in Karnataka, where more than 1000 waste-pickers participated. The gathering was organised to celebrate the work done by waste-pickers and informal waste collectors to keep our cities clean and healthy. The memorandum shared by Hasirudala…

Seven corporators from Bengaluru have welcomed Greenpeace India’s campaign on composting and growing food. They have agreed to take forward the message of segregating, composting and using this compost to grow food. Joining them are more than 14,000 individuals who have pledged to do the same. The initiatives are part of Greenpeace India’s campaign ‘Waste To Food’. The campaign's objective is to ensure that solid waste that the city produces is segregated, composted and sent to farmers to use as fertiliser. This can reduce dependence on agro-chemicals for farmers, improve soil health and also comes back as safer food for…

BBMP’s outsourced garbage contract system failed continuously to deliver and rampant corruption and malpractices the order of the day. Yet the Council has again proposed that the tenders be called for again, supporting the comeback of contractors! As explained in Part 1, the stranglehold of the BBMP Council on the implementation of effective waste management, therefore, still continues, leading to a virtual paralysis in the SWM delivery and implementation. No new SWM proposals have been passed by the Council in the last five months and status quo is being maintained. This is a testimony to the lack of willpower to…

For three years, every attempt to bring in performance-based garbage contracts in Bengaluru have been stymied and the inefficient and corrupt outsourcing work order based contract system continues. Several attempts were made since 2014 to issue performance contracts. But the contractors abstained from bidding, and brought in stays from the court. The Council chose to go with an ad-hoc solution, through the informal arrangements with contractors, called ‘Departmental work order’. The outsourced contract system has failed continuously to deliver the required level of waste management services, while rampant corruption and malpractices galore in managing Pourakarmikas. Finally, the Cabinet took a…

To the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Sri Siddaramaiah, To the Minister, Sri K J George Sir, Citizen Petition: #BringBackSubodhYadav This is a tipping point. We citizens of Bengaluru who have been working on bringing in Sustainable Solid Waste management since 2009, find the abrupt transfer of BBMP SWM Special Commissioner Subodh Yadav, IAS, completely untimely, unjustified and unacceptable. This move of the Government is the tipping point which is leading into the streets well-meaning citizens who have been working with passion and optimism in their neighborhoods for improving the solid waste management in and around them. What was Subodh Yadav…