Blackspots resurface showing all is not well in solid waste management in Mangaluru

MANGALURU

A roadside blackspot in front of the busy KSRTC bus stand in Mangaluru greets visitors, showcasing the sorry state of affairs in solid waste management in the coastal city. The blackspot on the corner of Bejai-Kuntikana Road in front of the bus stand now mocks Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), which once bagged a series of awards for maintaining cleanliness among urban local bodies in India.

Blackspots across 60 wards of the corporation have gone up in the past one year. Ravichandra Naik, Commissioner, MCC, says, “The civic body has identified 60 major blackspots for installing CCTV cameras to prevent people from dumping waste in public places.”

Mangaluru once took pride in bagging the third rank among 476 cities in India in the Swachh Survekshan Survey of the Union Government. The civic body received ‘India’s best city in solid waste management’ award in 2018. Mangaluru was among the 23 cities selected in the country for the 2018 national award under different categories. Later it also bagged the Green Leaf Award and Solid Waste Management Icon Award for best solid waste management (SWM).

Sanitation ranking drops

Glaringly, the sanitation rating of Mangaluru drastically dropped to 253rd among 446 cities in the country in the survey in 2023.

Incidentally, the black spots are on the rise notwithstanding Ramakrishna Mission (mutt) of Mangaluru, on the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, undertaking citizen-driven Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan twice. If the first phase, the campaign was held from January 30, 2015, to 2019. The second phase went on for a year from October 1, 2023. The first phase focused on cleaning roads and the surroundings. The focus of the second phase was on visiting houses and creating awareness on the proper disposal of domestic waste by segregating.

Ranjan Bellarpady, the coordinator of the mutt and the campaign, told The Hindu that the first phase of the weekly drive held on 200 Sundays covered 20 lakh man hours. “Awareness programmes on wet waste management reached three lakh houses. In addition, cleanliness education was imparted to 25,000 school children. The mission also reached 15,000 college students through workshops,” he said.

Mr. Bellarpady added, “About 53,000 kg of waste was removed from public places in the second phase of the campaign through 12 cleanliness drives (one per month). The initiative brought together 4,426 volunteers who planted 1,400-plus saplings across the city. About 5,000 households were reached out to in the second phase educating them on waste segregation.”

In spite of a number of awareness programmes conducted over the years, by the mission and other voluntary organisations prior to 2015, black spots have returned in the same places, and in new places.

Segregation lags behind

The Commissioner blamed the rise in black spots on people not segregating the waste as wet, dry and sanitary. “When people did not segregate waste, the corporation workers did not lift the mixed garbage from the doorsteps. Then people dumped them in public places,” he said.

“Now we have begun imposing a penalty for non-segregation of waste, starting with hotels. It will be extended to houses and other establishments,” the Commissioner said hoping that it might help in containing black spots. Each hotel found not segregating waste was imposed a penalty of ₹5,000. The civic body has also begun distributing handbills asking people to segregate waste, he said.

Bellarpady and Umanath Kotekar, general secretary of Ambamaheshwari Seva Trust, which voluntarily monitors segregation of waste in Mangaladevi, Bolar, and Hoige Bazar wards since late 2023, said that waste collecting vehicles of the corporation do not collect garbage from all areas, adding to the blackspots.

Kotekar added, “After MCC switched over from contract-based SWM system to self-managed system over six months ago, it does not have supervisors to monitor waste collection at doorstep. It has got only eight health inspectors who practically can not monitor the waste collection in all wards.”

But the Commissioner maintained that the corporation has not been receiving complaints from people regarding garbage not being lifted.

Not concurring with this, Bellarpady said that the office of Ramakrishna Mutt gets calls from people regarding the garbage not being lifted. “People call the office as the mutt was actively involved in the cleanliness drive for about six years,” he said.

A rare initiative

Kotekar said that when the trust intervened to join hands with the MCC for better SWM, its volunteers visited 5,800 houses of about 8,000 houses (including apartments) in three wards since December 2023, creating awareness on waste segregation. Some RWAs did not allow the volunteers to visit the apartments.

“We found that about 500 houses were not segregating waste. People of those houses told us that even if they segregated waste, the corporation transported it with mixed waste. On the other hand, the corporation workers blamed people for not segregating waste. The blame game resulted in blackspots,” he said.

After the intervention of the trust, all 500 houses segregate waste, he said adding that the trust randomly monitors waste segregation in those houses even now.

“Mangaladevi, Bolar, and Hoige Bazar wards are now free of blackspots to an extent of 90%,”Kotekar said adding that now the trust has extended its awareness drive to three more neighbouring wards – Port, Cantonment and Attavar. “Field visits of our volunteers have just begun by initially approaching commercial establishments,” he said.

Revanth of Kottara said that the corporation should collect the dry waste at least four days a week to prevent people from dumping them in public places. Though the corporation claims that dry waste is being collected twice a week, in reality in some places like Kottara, Urwa and Chilimbi, it is being collected only once a week. The production of dry waste is on the rise in all households due to the changing lifestyle of people and marketing of products through attractive packaging by manufacturers and outlets. Hence, the civic body should not give scope for the accumulation of dry waste in homes.

In some instances, members of some voluntary organisations kept a vigil at blackspots, caught those who dumped the waste there red-handed, and returned the waste to the homes and establishments that dumped them. The aim was to discourage dumping waste in public places. Yet, the dumping continues.

Helpline sought

Bellarpady said that to free the city from blackspots, the corporation should open a helpline with a dedicated phone number which people can call if garbage is not collected, or if a blackspot is created.

A team will have to be formed for clearing blackspots immediately. The team will have to be in touch with the councillor of respective ward, health inspector and supervisor of waste collection.

Kotekar said that if the corporation involves local people in the ward level to make people understand on the need for segregation and monitors the collection seriously, creation of blackspots can be prevented.

Cleared during the Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan, a major blackspot at Yekkur Junction on the National Highway 66 and such spots in other areas like in Bunder, at the entry to the Old Port, at Kodical, near the zilla panchayat office in Kottara have resurfaced, revealing that all is not well in SWM of the MCC.