Janakpuri ward shows the way in waste segregation

The volume of garbage being sent to Okhla landfill from this ward has reduced by five metric tonnes daily.

A municipal ward in Janakpuri (number 16S) was on Wednesday declared the first ‘Model Ward’ of Delhi with officials saying that it was on track to become fully compliant with the Solid Waste Management (SWM) bylaws of 2018. All homes in this ward are segregating garbage May 11 onwards.

Declared Delhi’s first ‘Model Ward’, it will be fully compliant with solid waste management bylaws 2018.(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

The volume of garbage being sent to Okhla landfill from this ward has reduced by five metric tonnes daily.

At least three metric tonnes of compost is being prepared from the clean organic kitchen and garden waste handed over by the residents, and two metric tonnes of glass, metal and paper given by them is being recycled at the ward level itself daily.

With the quantity of garbage reduced, the civic body’s transportation cost to the Okhla sanitary landfill has come down by Rs. 8,000 per day, said officials. The distance between Janakpuri in southwest Delhi and Okhla in southeast is about 26 kilometers and at least 2-3 garbage trucks would make the trip daily. Thereby, SDMC is saving R 2.4 lakh per month, the officials said.

“After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked us to pick three wards in our jurisdiction to be turned into ‘model wards’ for garbage management on March 11 this year, we had chosen RK Puram (65S), Andrews Ganj (59S) and Janakpuri South (16S) for the job,” said Umesh Tyagi, additional commissioner, SDMC.

“In Janakpuri specifically, we involved 10,000 households. We initiated meticulous awareness campaigns here with one person accompanying the garbage collecting rickshaw puller daily telling residents that the SDMC will not collect mixed garbage after May 10. Gradually, the amount of mixed garbage reduced from 15.10 metric tonnes per day to 10 metric tonnes only, and now we have 100% compliance from the residents,” he said.

Officials said they did not need to impose fine on residents though the SWM bylaws have a provision of Rs. 200 per default penalty for non-segregation by each house. The user charges for garbage collection have also not been initiated so far, but will be done gradually, an officer said.

A local resident, Manohar Arora, said earlier no one would maintain two dustbins here. “But now, we all have a green one for organic waste and a blue one for inorganic waste. We have even trained our maids in this regard and very happy to help us in building a garbage-free city,” he said.

“The other two wards -- RK Puram (65S) and Andrews Ganj (59S) -- are also on the way to becoming fully SWM bylaws compliant,” said Rajiv Jain, superintending engineer, with SDMC who oversaw the operation. Similarly, the north municipality has identified Pitampura, Rajendra Nagar and Rohini-G wards to be developed as ‘model wards’ for garbage management, and the east corporation has chosen Yamuna Vihar, Mayur Vihar Phase-I and Anand Vihar for the job.