Bengaluru: Garbage woes all over again

The ‘garden city’ started stinking to the heavens as the rains overlapped the festive season. Why do we still have garbage disposal problems, and what is the solution?

Bengaluru: Bengaluru has always had its trysts with garbage problem, and this season is not new or unanticipated. Many parts of the city developed black spots when waste transportation became difficult due to rains. Household waste accumulated along with festival waste, while rain added to the mix, creating a cocktail of leachate.

Complaints poured in from across the city and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike issued clairifcation, citing the reasons for the delay. The roads to Mitaganahalli landfill were in bad shape which had delayed the transportation.

The rains have almost stopped. The city is still seeing more festival waste, with Diwali festival being celebrated across the city. The collection and transportation of waste has resumed, but citizen volunteers are unhappy with the clearance mechanism.

Datta Saraf, a green volunteer from Nagarabavi area, says the situation is now complicated. Previously, the vehicles were managed by supervisors themselves. Now Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) supervisors who manage pourakarmikas sweeping the streets say the Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) has to manage the vehicles. 

Street sweeping becomes the supervisor’s job, and collecting and disposing of all the waste in an auto tipper is the contractor’s. This poses problems when both are not in sync.

“We have to manage two systems now. For street sweeping, we have to talk to the supervisor; for garbage clearance, we have to talk to the contractor. There is often no coordination between these two people,” he says.

“The supervisor will say there is no auto, so I cannot do anything. But the contractor guy says we send authors whenever supervisors ask for them. For many days, our area near Nagarabavi suffered from this. During rains, two big blackspots were created. After the rains stopped, they took three to four days extra,” he added.

Deepa, a resident of Whitefield, says the system largely works. However, there are loopholes.

“Here, we have a good WhatsApp group for coordination with all stakeholders. Wet waste should be collected every day from homes. But from what I hear, they do not have enough vehicles. The vehicles get loaded quickly. By the time they empty it and come back, things can get delayed,” she explains.

“Dry waste is supposed to visit thrice a week. They also have their challenges, but 80 per cent of the time they follow the schedules. People working on the ground do keep us informed when there are such issues, though officials do not always do it,”  she says. 

Garbage piled up on Kavi Lakshmisha Road at V V Puram in Bengaluru.

‘Bring back the bins’

Deepa raises an important issue which the city has buried in its solid waste management history.

“People dump on the roadside big time. We conducted a pilot and asked those who dumped the reasons. In some homes, the homeowners do not dispose of their waste; the maids do. They dump it on the roadside when they go back home. In some homes, women say they must go to work, and collection vehicles come when they are not around. Such people have no solution in the present system,” she explains.

Bengaluru had bins in the 2000s, but after the door-to-door collection of waste was introduced, the city did away with all bins. Today, the city has a no-bin policy.

“Providing bins to those who dump on the ground would be a solution; those who dump waste dump on the ground, creating black spots, can dump it in the bin, which is easier to clear,” says Deepa.

“An excuse they have is when they dump on the bin, they don’t segregate. But what is the option? Do they segregate when they dump on the road? Segregation is possible only with door-to-door collection,” she exclaims.

“When the garbage is cleared, the muck and stink is still left on the ground because there is no container. We are willing to do bin pilots in our area. Let the authorities think about it,” she says, emphasising why a no-garbage-on-ground policy is important and how bins help with household waste.