GHMC move to segregate waste goes for a toss

Hyderabad: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) under the initiative ‘Swacch Telangana’ distributed two dustbins to around 45 lakh households in the city. 

The initiative was aimed at managing waste segregation into dry and wet waste under GHMC limits. Though the GHMC is taking all measures to control waste segregation, there are still some loopholes that need immediate addressing. Recently, the GHMC distributed two dustbins, one blue and one green. According to the initiative, GHMC workers go house-to-house collecting segregated waste, but the ground issue faced by the workers is segregation at the household level. 

According to officials, the initiative was started under ‘Swachh Telangana’ campaign. The need to segregate waste among people should be a continuous process and it is compulsory for every person to collect dry waste in one bin and wet waste in a different bin. Along with the two-bin policy, the government also ordered for 3, ooo auto trolleys to lift garbage from various localities and each trolley will be given to people under the driver cum owner programme of GHMC.

Amit, MNC employee, who resides in Balanagar at Vinayaka Nagar said, GHMC does not quite serve the purpose because though we give garbage in two different bins, the workers do not collect in different trolleys but mix the garbage. It ruins the segregation of dry and wet garbage.

Nidhi, a housemaker, who resides in Fathenagar at Bhagatsingh park said, GHMC worker collects both the coloured dustbins, but do not segregate wet and dry waste. “Even if we give them in different bins they end up mixing the garbage,” she added. One look into the trolley and it is understood that nothing is segregated and sometimes they come and collect the garbage in afternoon, which should be improved, she added. 

However, Officials depend on data and claim that the move was successful. “We have records and the segregation is being done completely. There had been a success rate of 80 per cent in waste segregation,” the official added. Others were unaware about the use of two dustbins thus putting the ‘extra’ bin to other purpose. But segregation at source is yet to be approved by majority of city folks.

While residents blame the absence of monitoring by officials, experts claimed lack of knowledge and awareness among citizens. “The two-bins were distributed but the garbage segregation was not successful in several localities,” the official said.

BY Vandana Sharma