Wealth from waste: Arakere shows the way

By Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

While Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has been struggling to fix garbage woes in the city even after spending crores of rupees; Arakere Grama Panchayat has been managing garbage efficiently and is set to earn revenue from waste.

Arakere Grama Panchayat, situated 17 kilometre away from Yelahanka, has been striving hard not only to ensure that the 10 villages under its jurisdiction are free from garbage woes, but also earn revenue from waste.

Earlier, Arakere Grama Panchayat used to dump the waste collected from door to door in 10 villages at a landfill near Yelahanka. Now, wet waste collected from villages is being used for making compost and dry waste is being segregated for recycling more than 40 items.

It all happened when Arakere Grama Panchayat members visited Udupi to learn about waste management last year. They later approached Bengaluru Urban District Deputy Commissioner J Manjunath seeking two acres of land for the construction waste segregation centre. It is learnt that the Deputy Commissioner reluctantly allotted two acres of land, but after visiting the waste segregation centre, which was inaugurated two months ago, he volunteered to allot one more acre.

“Our Deputy Commissioner Sir was not convinced when we approached him seeking two acres of land. He appreciated us for utilizing the land for the right purpose and wanted to allot more land if the need arises,” said Arakere Grama Panchayat Secretary Usman.

Arakere Grama Panchayat vicepresident Manjula Arasegowda told News Trail that the panchayat bought a compost-making machine for Rs 18 lakh and it has the capacity to convert wet waste into compost within 24 hours. “There is a lot of demand for compost from farmers. Compost is being sold at Rs 15 per kg,” said Manjula Arasegowda.

Arakere Grama Panchayat engaged two tractors and six workers to collect waste from door to door and assigned three workers to segregate dry waste at the waste management centre. “The workers have segregated more than 40 items out of dry waste collected. Recently a truck load of dry waste was sold. As of now, our panchayat earned Rs 1 lakh revenue. So far we sold more than 1,000 kg of compost,” said Usman.

Meanwhile, Dr Shobha Ananda Reddy, Environmental Scientist and Indian Administrative Fellow, Panchayat Raj Department, has opined that Arakere Gram Panchayat has established a good system of door-to-door collection, wet waste composting and segregation of dry waste into 48 categories and earning revenue from sales.

“Higher the segregation, the higher is the income. More than income point of view, better secondary and tertiary segregation will aid effective recycling of waste materials, which otherwise may end up in landfills or dumped on the streets and waterways,” said Dr Shobha Ananda Reddy.

She said that the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department has been encouraging the Gram Panchayat Level Federation of SHG women to take up SLWM as an enterprise. “So far more than 2,100 MoUs have been signed between Gram Panchayats and GPLFs. Women are also being given driving skill development training and more than 600 women have DLs and are driving Swacchata Vahinis for D2D collection of waste in rural Karnataka,” she said.

She said that SHG women should come forward and take up the SLWM activities and be part of the local governance. They can visit Arakere GP to learn more about segregation. “The approach of Arakere Gram Panchayat is laudable and the process of waste management adopted here should be a model for all other local bodies (rural and urban) to ensure cleanliness,” she said.