The Panvel City Municipal Corporation will soon roll out the Swachh Panvel project with a focus on waste segregation, Commissioner Dr. Sudhakhar Shinde announced on Wednesday. The corporation will implement the project in a month’s time, he said.
“Swachh Panvel is one of the projects I had in mind while I took charge again as chief of the Panvel City Municipal Corporation. The project will mostly target solid waste management,” said Mr. Shinde. Currently, City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) handles solid waste management, and before the PCMC takes it over, it wants to educate citizens on the importance of segregation.
CIDCO handles solid waste management at Panvel, Kamote, Kharghar, Kalamboli. Around 300-350 metric tonnes of garbage is generated every day and is collected with the help of 20 compactors and five to six small vehicles.
Spurred by protests
The push for the initiative came from a recent protest by villagers of Ghat Chal, who did not want waste to be disposed of at the landfill near Taloja-MIDC. The protest prevented garbage from being not lifted from June 4 to June 8, and every street was stinking, said Mr. Shinde. “During that time, I met the villagers who didn’t want a landfill site near their village as they have to live around the stench. This is another reason why we want to implement this project and ensure it is a success, so very less garbage is dumped at the landfill.”
Apart from spreading awareness of wet and dry waste, residents will be told to go in for composting in their housing societies or making community pits, and the manure will be used for plants. The corporation will provide all the requisite support such as include pit/block composting and electric composting machines.
Mr. Shinde is confident this will reduce the cost of transportation of waste to landfill sites. The money saved can be spent on development projects for the city. “Once we achieve this, we will further segregate dry waste into plastic, glass, metal, electronic, medicinal waste by integrating self-help groups of rag pickers at collection and segregation points.”
CIDCO officials are in favour of the segregation and composting initiatives. K.K. Varkhedkar, Chief Engineer, CIDCO, said, “The landfill can currently accommodate garbage for another three years, but if the waste dump is reduced, it can be used for a longer period. Apart from that, when they take solid waste management from us, things will be much more systematic.”
Mixed response
There is a mixed response from residents, though.
Jyoti Nadkarni, a resident of Sector 35, said,“Composting wet waste is good. However, all societies are not lucky to have space for composting. Why can’t the corporation take up composting and then sell the manure?”
Nargis Shiekh believes most people are hard-pressed for time. “Cutting vegetables into small pieces and then adding them to the compost pit: working women like me will not have the time to do. Why doesn’t the corporation do it?”
Praveen Patil says the initiative will go a long way. “It is nice that such an initiative has been planned by our commissioner. Waste segregation is a task but it will help the residents. CIDCO has not been able to collect waste regularly.”
