The authorities of a village in Manipur’s Senapati district bordering Nagaland continues to buy dry waste generated in its jurisdiction as part of a campaign to promote cleanliness and environment awareness among residents with a vision to become one of the cleanest village.
The village authority of Kaibi, a hill village located 103 km north of Imphal has spent Rs 8000 (inclusive of collection and transportation charges) and bought 500 kg of dry waste – for Rs 10 per kg from residents on Sunday as part of observing the second ‘Dustbin-less Drive Festival’ in the village. Last year they spent Rs 1.8 lakh in buying 8000 kg of dry waste for Rs 20 per kg.
According to Pukeho Athishu, secretary of village beautification committee, the programme of Dustbin-less Drive Festival was simple but it has a unique impact of creating an awareness of keeping the village clean and green.
Athishu also admitted that the idea to buy the solid waste started after various attempts at waste management in the village, populated by the Mao community, went in vain.
But the volume this year, plastics in particular, generated from the village has been drastically reduced as compared to last year, he said.
The reason is because of the introduction of certain tips in waste management.
The tips include introduction of segregation of bio-degradable and non-biodegradable at the household levels, every Saturday cleaning activities by high school students, imposition of fines and teaching activities at pre-nursery level children, he added.
The village authority takes up the initiative to show the villagers that cleanliness can be maintained to keep up the spirit of clean and green village, he said.
The idea is to turn our village into one of the cleanest in the country, he further added.
The initiative has been taken up, as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. Currently the collected (non-biodegradable) waste is packed in used cement bags and kept at an isolated part of the village for its proper disposal while the bio-degradable waste are used as household manure.