Solid and liquid waste management is a key area of focus and research for the Swachh Bharat Mission. Location-specific, cost-effective, and appropriate technologies for sustainable and safe sanitation should be encouraged, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation, has said.
He was speaking at a national workshop on solid and liquid waste management, which he inaugurated along with Kerala Minister for Local Self-Government K.T. Jaleel, here on Friday.
The two-day workshop is organised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in association with World Bank, and is hosted by the Suchitwa Mission.
By 2019
Highlighting the target of achieving a Swachh Bharat by October 2, 2019, he said corporate social responsibility funds, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Financial Commission grants, and other such sources of funding could be explored if financial aid under the mission was inadequate.
Calling for involvement of local panchayats and the community in projects so as to ensure their sustainability, he said segregation, collection, treatment, and disposal of garbage should preferably be taken up in a decentralised manner. States, he said, were free to decide on the technology suitable for their needs. He said the waste management practices adopted by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Punjab were replicable models.
Lack of awareness
Mr. Jaleel that in the absence of public awareness and civic consciousness, the goal of Swachh Bharat could not be attained. The slogan ‘My waste is my responsibility’ should be propagated more. Local bodies had been told to set aside at least 10 per cent of their Plan fund for waste management.
To achieve the status of open-defecation-free State by November, 3 lakh toilets needed to be built. Wherever enough funds could not be made available to build toilets, hurdles cropped up. Administrators, leaders and political representatives had a huge responsibility in this respect.
He also called for enhancing subsidies. It was important that scientific ways of waste management at an affordable cost be evolved, he said.
Chief Secretary S.M. Vijayanand said Kerala faced second-generation issues in waste management. Phase 2 of People’s Plan would focus on waste management, he said. What was required was a menu of options so that local bodies and the people could make informed choices on what was acceptable, affordable and maintainable. Saraswati Prasad, Additional Secretary, and Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation; T.K. Jose, Principal Secretary, Government of Kerala; and K. Vasuki, Executive Director, Suchitwa Mission, were present.
