From Yusuf Kabir, United Nations Children’s Fund, Kolkata
Posted 15 December 2008

I am Yusuf Kabir, working with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Kolkata, in the Water and Environmental Sanitation Department. I am involved in demonstrating and scaling up of Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in rural West Bengal, in partnership with panchayats, the West Bengal State Rural Development Department and several NGOs.

The Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, has modified the TSC guidelines and included a component for solid and liquid waste management. Up to 10% of the funds allocated for TSC in a particular district have now been set aside for SLWM.

In urban areas, there are a few examples of good practices of Community-Level Solid Waste Management (Patna and Bangalore). However, the urban per capita generation of solid waste is 500-600 gm/day of which 60-70% is compostable/biodegradable. As a result, while centralised composting and wastes management is possible, solid waste remains a problem in urban areas.

The situation is different in rural areas, where it has been observed that waste generation trend is 50- 150gm/day/capita. However, this is on the higher side as most of it comprises green waste, which is consumed by domestic animals. Therefore, in rural areas the nature of wastes is quite different from urban areas.

We seek inputs from the community’s members on the following three broad areas:

• Social Mobilisation
• Intervention Level
• Technology Options

These are elaborated as follows:

Social Mobilisation

• How can we make SLWM a demand-driven activity just like household-level toilet promotion under TSC in rural areas?

Intervention Level

• Is community-level solid waste management (house-to-house collection and community level composting) a sustainable and viable option for rural areas?
• What can be the possible roles and responsibilities of Gram Panchayats?

Technology Options

• What cost-effective SLWM technologies exist for use at the household level?
• What are the cost-effective technology options for conservation and cleaning of ponds in villages?

Your response will help us to develop a strategy and roadmap for scaling up SLWM activities in gram panchayats in West Bengal under TSC. These will be applied in panchayats with heterogeneous characteristics in terms of population density, urbanisation trend and socio-economic profile.

Please see attachment below for the responses.