Two municipal bodies from two Northeast states were awarded for their performances in exploring and reinventing their solid waste management (SWM) systems in the country. The two municipal bodies are Gangtok Municipal Corporation (GMC) of Sikkim and Imphal Municipal Council (IMC) of Manipur.
The Leaves Awards were conferred by New Delhi based NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) based on the findings of the assessment report (2017-18) of the performance of 26 Forum cities in national capital on June 7.
The parameters included segregation at source, collection, transportation, waste processing, adoption of decentralised systems, the inclusion of informal sector and the enforcement of SWM bye-laws and Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
GMC received the Three Leaves Award as14 out of the 17 wards in Gangtok have a high segregation percentage. About 90 per cent of the commercial establishments such as shops etc. segregate waste at source.
14 wards are covered under door-to-door collection.About 23 tonnes of wet waste is treated daily, 510 households in Arithang, a ward in Gangtok are treating wet waste via composting.
However IMC got the Two Leave Award as only 2 wards are segregating at source. Door-to-door collection is outsourced to a local NGO notified by IMC. All the wards are covered under door to door collection where waste is collected from households, commercial & institutional establishments and bulk generators and has 100 per cent collection efficiency.
About 52 tonnes of wet waste is treated via pit composting and the compost produced is being outsourced to a local agro-based While about 63 per cent of dry waste is being stored in the storage facility at Lamdeng.
Both the cities-Gangtok and Imphal are yet to adopt the bye-laws as per Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. However, Gangtok is enforcing some of the major provisions of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.