[Reader-list] ‘Waste to Energy’ is the Way Forward to Solve Garbage Menace- Union Government Representatives

[Kabir Khan]

‘Waste to Energy’ is the Way Forward to Solve Garbage Menace- Union
Government Representatives
<https://maleccha.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/waste-to-energy-is-the-way-forward-to-solve-garbage-menace-union-government-representatives/>

The Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance government is slowly
unfolding its urban agenda. The solutions presented to deal with the
‘menaces’ of urban India by the government are not just questionable, they
are very scary. It is apparent that the cities will be scampered as
‘Multi-National Corporations’. This was stated by one of the government
officials in a recently held ‘International Conference on Sustainable and
Inclusive Urban Development in India’. The proceedings of the conference
will be out in the coming days. I will not indulge in detailing the
deliberations of it.

This post is about the urban solid waste management framework proposed by
those in the corridors of power to clean our garbage ridden cities. Last
year, on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, Union Government launched* Swach
Bharat Abhiyaan *(Clean India Mission). Initially there wasn’t much clarity
of what is it that government desires to do. Is it going to be the follow
up of *Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan *of previous Manmohan Singh led government
where greater emphasis was laid on sanitation or is it going to be limited
to keeping our streets of cities clean? Over the past many months,
government machinery has achieved a greater degree of clarity on Swach
Bharat Abhiyaan. As a part of the larger programme, new draft versions of
Solid Waste Management Rules, plastic, e-waste, bio-medical and hazardous
waste handling and management rules have been opened for public discussion.
Government has also framed guidelines for Swach Bharat Abhiyaan. The
mission emphasis is both on sanitation and solid waste management. Larger
investments will be made on constructing toilets and supporting municipal
governments to increase their capacities in the domain of waste management.
The discourse on the given mission was held as a part of the international
conference. The importance of the discussion can be realized from the fact
that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Institute for Transformation
of India (NITI) Aayog, Sindhushree Khullar, chaired the session.

The presentations on sanitation were grounded. The recommendations and
challenges highlighted how constructing toilets alone will not be able to
solve the problem of open defecation. It’s the conversation on Solid Waste
Management which became a little discomforting. V. Srinivas Chary,
Professor and Director, Center for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance
and Infrastructure Development, Administrative Staff College of India, who
has been supported by *Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation* for various
research projects on sanitation, opened the Pandora box by saying that
government should  rigorously go after ‘waste to energy’- incineration
plants for handling solid waste.  It is the technology of the day. Durga
Shankar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, also
spoke about solid waste management. He emphasized on the new developments
for encouraging innovations in ‘waste to energy’ which included proposed
amendments for existing Electricity Act and mandatory purchasing of
electricity from waste to energy plants at deferentially higher price for
encouraging innovation in the sector by state electricity boards.
Considering that ‘waste to energy’ is merely tech-fix with very high
environmental and economic costs, the government approach didn’t make sense
at all. Continued here...
<https://maleccha.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/waste-to-energy-is-the-way-forward-to-solve-garbage-menace-union-government-representatives/>

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कबीर/کبیر

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