Chandigarh: With solid waste management becoming a major issue in Chandigarh, the municipal corporation in association with National Productivity Council organized a capacity building technical workshop of stakeholders on waste management rules (2016) on Wednesday.
The workshop was inaugurated by city mayor Asha Jaswal in presence of municipal commissioner, experts, councillors. More than 300 participants including representatives of Federation of Sectors Welfare Associations of Chandigarh, Beopar Mandal, RWAs, NGOs, self-help groups, waste collectors, industrial associations, industries, officials from pollution control board, department of environment, academic and research institutes attended the event.
Bringing change in the behaviour for common public towards the segregation of waste is the key to proper management of the solid waste, said experts.
Experts also said how the authorities can play a major role by implementing the existing norms with the collaboration of all the stakeholders, especially residents.
During the workshop, slides of successful solid management were also shown to the gathering to make people understand about the benefits of segregation of garbage and its proper disposal.
One of the experts showed visuals of Coimbatore displaying how 40,000 residents of a village manage segregated garbage and ensuring its proper disposal in the village itself. Various other models were also shown during the workshop.
Municipal commissioner Baldeo Purushartha said due to lack of awareness, waste is mostly managed in an unorganized manner from its generation source. MC has started awareness campaigns to educate the people on this issue.
"Government is coming up with massive reforms in handling of waste and the intent shown in the recent times on waste management across the country has boosted our moral. MC has been distributing coloured bins -- green and blue -- to each household to segregate waste from the source level which will help us follow the recycling norms," Purushartha added.
During sessions, different speakers talked about solid waste management rules, 2016. P U Asani, chairman of urban management consultants, informed about solid waste management scenario in India and gaps in implementation, introduction to solid waste management rules, 2016, implementation aspects of solid waste management rules and their case study.
Environment and climate change experts Sanchita Jindal and Ulhas Parlikar enlightened the audience about plastic waste management in the country, implementation of plastic waste management rules.
The afternoon session started with the introduction of e-waste management rules and implementation aspects.
AK Saxena, a senior environment consultant briefed about the status and implementation aspects of hazardous waste management rules.
Addressing the delegates, city mayor Asha Jaswal said all the sections of society and citizens of Chandigarh must join hands in order to improve awareness and effective compliance of waste management rules.
She said, "We have to be practical and work towards implementing waste management rules. Suggestions from all sections of society would be welcomed by the Municipal Corporation."
