Hyderabad: Garbage collection now a Herculean task in city

Adarsh Nagar: As Hyderabad turns bin-free, the Swacch Auto Tippers (SAT) engaged for door-to-door collection of garbage struggle to meet the requirement. A total of 3,500 SATs covering the entire corporation find it a Herculean task lifting garbage produced by close to one crore population.

Meanwhile, garbage heaps are springing up at places where once bins were placed.

The SATs are likely to collect garbage only once a week, as following the civic body orders to pick waste from around 600 houses a day is becoming an arduous task for them. Moreover, of the 3,500 autos, only 2,500 remain operational, covering 21 lakh households and dumping garbage at transfer stations.

According to the officials of GHMC solid waste management wing, recently 350 SATs were added to extend the reach of door-to-door garbage collection to the nook and corner of City.

"Earlier, each tipper had to cover around 800 homes in a day, but later it turned out to be experimentally feasible to visit a home only once a week and collect garbage.

Later, they were asked to collect from 600 households," they informed. They say that it measurestake some time to yield results but would be fully implemented.

A ragpicker, who has been recently allotted with auto tipper for collecting garbage, said the vehicle is given under the driver-cum-owner scheme in which 10 per cent of the cost of the vehicle is borne by them.

"The vehicle is financed by a private bank, with 72 months of EMI, so we pay monthly EMI to banks. We generate income by collecting trash at one place. We separate the plastic and things which can be sold," he said.

A resident of Red Hills, Mohammed Zubair, who has lodged a complaint with GHMC by observing heaps of garbage near Niloufer Hospital, said, "We cannot live with six days of wastage at home.

We have nine members in the family. Daily there are two buckets full of trash, but the auto tipper comes only once a week. What about other days? What to do with that trash? Live with it during this pandemic time?" questions Zubair.

A local from Panjeshah, in Charminar, Syed Mateen, alleged that the auto tippers are not even covering 600 houses in a single trip. "I have been observing for the past one week. Hardly they collect garbage from 200 houses in the area."

With no option, people are coming out of their houses and dumping all the waste of six days on streets and roads, at the same location where there were dustbins earlier.

Others wonder as to why GHMC has wasted funds in the name of dry and wet waste across the City. "Why GHMC wasted public money on it?" wonders Sai Kumar, a resident of Nampally.