Acknowledging that a massive behaviour change is needed to transform the city’s solid waste management scene, the Greater Chennai Corporation has embarked on a mission to educate the residents on waste segregation at source. The idea is to reduce the burden on the city’s landfills and decentralize the waste management process. Awareness drives and public meetings will be conducted in select wards and will later be implemented across the city based on the pilot experience.

 

Closely following the Ulsoor Lake tragedy, a massive fishkill was observed in Bengaluru's Devarabeesanahalli Lake. Release of industrial pollutants and sewage are the reasons behind the lak’es decreased oxygen levels, triggering the mass kill. The lake had reported a similar fishkill back in June 2015 as well. The Bangalore Development Authority is the custodian of the 4.64 hectare lake. 

 

With thousands of pilgrims thronging the holy cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh, the authorities had to come up with a concrete solution to deal with the growing human waste disposal issue. The twin cities were adopted by the Global Interfaith WASH alliance in conjunction with BHEL Haridwar as part of its CSR commitments and three clusters of bio-digester toilets were thrown open to the public in mid-March. By the end of the month, 22 more toilet clusters are expected to be ready in the cities’ mela zones.

 

The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon has sought more time from the National Green Tribunal to submit the action taken report on the leachate leak from its Bandhwari waste treatment plant. The plant has not functioned for over two years now, but the constant dumping of solid waste has resulted in the leakage of black water from the disposal site. After the Corporation repeatedly ignored reminders, a show-cause notice was issued on February 22.

 

With just one public toilet seat for 50 people in Mumbai, MLAs cutting across party lines slammed the government for lack of adequate public sanitation infrastructure in the city. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister had announced that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai would come up with a policy and issue time-bound permits to construct toilets across the city.