Infrastructure

It is now time to revive the age old procedure of building action plan. Here are some guidelines which can be implemented. 1. In multi-storied buildings, garbage chutes need to be banned, to enforce segregation at source. In buildings that already have chutes, they should be closed. In new buildings, chutes should not be approved during the plan sanction. 2. All multi-storied buildings should provide a garbage sorting area along with a composting area. If there is insufficient space at ground level, terrace/ topmost floor/ basement can be considered. It has been found that the terrace (or top most floor)…

Residents loacted beside the Thubarahalli-Vibgyor school Road stretch have been facing problems every day, due to not having basic amenities like road, streetlight and sewage. Around 6000 people stay in this locality. A mud road which gives access to eight to nine apartments in this area has not been upgraded for the last eight years. The situation of Thubarahalli - Vibgyor school road is really pathetic during rainy season. Pic: Javed Ahmad In summer, dust pollution created here is unimaginable. Dust is being collected on the apartments in such a huge quantity that people cannot open their windows. The building…

Waste or garbage management is the responsibility of each one of us. It starts with us- residents and shopkeepers. All of us have to overcome the chalta hai attitude towards this very important environmental issue. The government and civic authorities also have a big role to play. Both of them have to work together as a focussed and committed team to overcome this huge issue. Unfortunately this has not happened. Residents Welfare Associations have regularly brought or bringing to the notice of concerned civic agencies, officials and elected representatives, to move forward, on this very important environmental issue through coordinated…

There are a lot of plans which are chalked out by all civic authorities to make Bangalore garbage free. But here are some simple things which you can do to make a huge difference- 1. Prevention is better than cure, so our main focus and priority should be on minimising waste to reduce the amount of waste generated. For instance, we urge people to stop using plastic bags. But, government needs to provide an alternative to this. Shops should be set up to sell cloth bags at cheaper rate. If cloth bags are available, then people will buy them and…

‘Whitefield Rising - Waste Management Team’ conducted their maiden seminar on June 15th,　2013 at The Whitefield Club.It was attended by the Corporator of Hagadur Ward, Mr H A Srinivas and several Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanaga Palike (BBMP) officials -Devaraju, Joint Commissioner, BBMP; Vinayaka, Environmental Engineer, BBMP, Sidalinge Gowda, Executive Engineer, BBMP, Whitefield, Devaraj, Health Inspector, and Kalpana, Health Officer. R. K Misra, (Founder of Nav Bharat and　SAHYOG - Indian Council for PPP) along with over 100 residents of the Whitefield area including communities such as Adarsh Palm Meadows, Waterwoods, Waterville, Renaissance Jagrithi, Vaswani Pinnacle, Brigade Metropolis, Prestige Shantiniketan, Laughing Waters, Shobha…

Tariffs are the single most important economic tool to control individual resident’s water usage. Many apartments often bundle water charges into a single maintenance account. But this keeps the expense of water consumption invisible. RWAs must have a Cost Account for water separately. RWA Management Committees need to consider various parameters to arrive at the tariff. What cannot be measured cannot be managed. The first step is to measure water consumption and calculate the total cost for getting water into a resident's flat. See part 1 of this series: Where does Bangalore get its water from? To read, click here.…

BESCOM MD,Manivannan P engaged the audience with game that illustrated the functioning of the government, private sector and how government should work. Pic courtesy: The Alternative The residents of various apartments in Bangalore assembled in The Energy and Resource Institute campus in Domlur on Saturday, 15 June 2013, at a campaign for self-sufficient apartment communities, initiated by Apartment Adda and The Alternative. Experts and intellectuals from various arenas were also present to discuss various obstacles faced by the bulk waste generators, specifically apartments. Recently, There has been buzz in the city apartments about sustainable consumption of water and energy and…

The garden city that’s on the fast track to become garbage city has finally started understanding the importance of composting and recycling. Karnataka Compost Development Corporation, dedicated to composting, has come back to the limelight, by accepting extra organic waste. A Muniraj, Technical Head, Karnataka Compost Development Corporation, who has been serving the firm since 1976, explained the composting process followed at the KCDC. The KCDC has two microbial compost processing units and 300 pits that generate 200 tons of manure per day. Composting here is done by two methods - aerobic and vermi-compost.   Aerobic composting Aerobic compost involves…

"Affordable homes with Smart Spaces and Community living" -- so goes oft seen copy in real estate advertisements and marketing brochures. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia Commons, Amol Gaitonde. First, let us clear the misconception that affordable homes are related to the lower income group. The word affordability has been misused by many in residential real estate market today. Affordability in its true sense means what is affordable for people living in that locality and it is very contextual. A two crore 2 BHK in Lavelle road is affordable for people who are living in Lavelle road and the same two crore…

KCDC will manage one lakh tons of accumulated (old) waste along with the additional waste after the arrival of the new processing units. Pic: Nikita Malusare Earlier this year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike tried to send vegetable waste from markets across Bengaluru, to goshalas (dairies). The intention was good, but  goshalas refused this waste. The reasons being many, such as the bad quality of waste and the problem with logistics, BBMP could not convince goshalas to accept this waste. This was when the long-forgotten Karnataka Compost Development Corporation came into picture. The BBMP diverted the vegetable waste from markets…