Even as rapid urbanisation is taking place, there is no infrastructure to handle the mounting garbage (“ >Making cities clean and sustainable ”, Feb. 17).
Civic officials are sent abroad to study how the local authorities in those countries keep their cities and towns clean and to study modern ways of handling urban waste, but they don’t implement these ideas when they return to the country.
The sudden increase in urban waste is mainly due to consumerism. The public could take small steps to prevent waste, by carrying cloth bags when they go shopping, for instance. Similarly, traders could pack their products in paper, not plastic. The worst addition to garbage now is e-commerce, which uses a large amount of paper and cello tape which all end up as municipal waste. Also contributing to waste are fertilizers used by farmers. Above all, the migration of rural people in large numbers to cities and towns makes these places unmanageable and unliveable. The Central and State governments should ensure that sufficient job opportunities are created in the villages so that migration for employment does not become a necessity. There must be a holistic approach towards tackling waste.
S. Nallasivan,
Navi Mumbai
