Urban garbage disposal
Indian cities have been growing haphazardly with increasing migration from semi urban and rural areas. Even at the best of times, the civic facilities and infrastructre were nothing to write home about. With huge surge in population and proliferation of urban dwelling in the last couple of decades, what semblence of civic services was there has crumbled.
There is dirt and squalor all around. Way back in 1983, I have noticed that certain areas of Mumbai looked rain drenched upto three feet from the ground every morning. It was not due to rain but caused by the morning ablution by masses. The stench was unbearable as the public transport buses would wind through such areas on my travel to my place of work. Besides stench and associated discomfiture, such atmosphere causes low grade year around health problems which could blow into an epidemic like the bubonic plague attack in Surat some years ago.
Off and on, I have been keeping track of some efforts on modern grabage disposal in cities proposed and experimented in varying scales. A German company had come up with a ( grandiose ) proposal for generating power from garbage a decade back. A corporation of one of the Indian metros signed an agreement with this firm for a pilot project. The German firm called it quits after an extended field survey of the quality and calorific content of Indian urban garbage. The firm reached the humble conclusion that Indian garbage consisted mostly of sand, dust and stones unlike garbage in developed countries which was mostly combustible and hence had higher calorific value. I would not be surprised that this knowledge gained and disseminated by the German firm was at the cost of Indian tax payers. Who says that only developed countries give scholarship for underprivileged students from developing countries ?
Now one can see an amusing spectacle in four of the ten zones of Chennai city Corporation area on garbage disposal front. A joint venture company formed by an Indian company and Colombian Company is engaged in garbage disposal which was awarded to it after an elaborate tender process. It beats me why a foreign collabaration is required for garbage clearance that too when very few countries have cities with large population and poor road conditions like Indian cities.
There are grotesque green plastic garbage tanks on castors which are eye sores on the streets. Just a year into the service, the garbage tanks remind of stray dogs hobbling around with injured limbs - the castors are jammed and face different directions and not all of them touch the ground. The lids of the tanks are broken and there are gaping cracks on the side walls .
The garbage gathering trucks have hydraulic mechanisms to lift these garbage tanks and tip their content into their cavernous bellies. The trucks appear gargantuan and their aesthetics do not show any sign of foreign collaboration. These trucks are painted yellow in the front with body and rear painted in white and are seldom washed.
The innovative aspect of the personnel manning these trucks are two guys hanging on to either sides at the back on foot boards like the Secret Service agents hanging on with their feet on the bumpers of the limousine of American President when he is on a ceremonial visit. Since most of the garbage tanks are broken at the top, the hydraulic mechanism alone is not enough to disgorge their contents by tippings. The guys at the back have also put in efforts to prevent the grabage tanks from slipping and falling into the cavernous bellies of the trucks.
There are sweepers and smaller garbage disposal vehicles augmenting the garbage clearance efforts. All the employees wear green uniforms in the same nauseating shade as the garbage tanks. The sweepers come pushing plastic trollies with brooms sticking out like bonsai plants in flowerpots.
One would expect stench control of garbage as a major contribution of "technology transfer" resulting from foreign collaboration, but there no such luck with the vicinity of the garbage trucks stinking to the heavens with an obnoxious undescribable stench madeup of a mix of describable stenches like pungent , nauseating , sour and so on. If one is unfortunate to be behind or beside such a truck in the traffic, it is a sure invitation to asphyxia.
Let us wait and see whether there will be improvements from the lessons learnt in the first year of operation. I am sure that the employees uniforms and garbage tanks in green colour would figure in the annual report of this firm as its contribution to green effort in Corporate Social Responsibility !
There is dirt and squalor all around. Way back in 1983, I have noticed that certain areas of Mumbai looked rain drenched upto three feet from the ground every morning. It was not due to rain but caused by the morning ablution by masses. The stench was unbearable as the public transport buses would wind through such areas on my travel to my place of work. Besides stench and associated discomfiture, such atmosphere causes low grade year around health problems which could blow into an epidemic like the bubonic plague attack in Surat some years ago.
Off and on, I have been keeping track of some efforts on modern grabage disposal in cities proposed and experimented in varying scales. A German company had come up with a ( grandiose ) proposal for generating power from garbage a decade back. A corporation of one of the Indian metros signed an agreement with this firm for a pilot project. The German firm called it quits after an extended field survey of the quality and calorific content of Indian urban garbage. The firm reached the humble conclusion that Indian garbage consisted mostly of sand, dust and stones unlike garbage in developed countries which was mostly combustible and hence had higher calorific value. I would not be surprised that this knowledge gained and disseminated by the German firm was at the cost of Indian tax payers. Who says that only developed countries give scholarship for underprivileged students from developing countries ?
Now one can see an amusing spectacle in four of the ten zones of Chennai city Corporation area on garbage disposal front. A joint venture company formed by an Indian company and Colombian Company is engaged in garbage disposal which was awarded to it after an elaborate tender process. It beats me why a foreign collabaration is required for garbage clearance that too when very few countries have cities with large population and poor road conditions like Indian cities.
There are grotesque green plastic garbage tanks on castors which are eye sores on the streets. Just a year into the service, the garbage tanks remind of stray dogs hobbling around with injured limbs - the castors are jammed and face different directions and not all of them touch the ground. The lids of the tanks are broken and there are gaping cracks on the side walls .
The garbage gathering trucks have hydraulic mechanisms to lift these garbage tanks and tip their content into their cavernous bellies. The trucks appear gargantuan and their aesthetics do not show any sign of foreign collaboration. These trucks are painted yellow in the front with body and rear painted in white and are seldom washed.
The innovative aspect of the personnel manning these trucks are two guys hanging on to either sides at the back on foot boards like the Secret Service agents hanging on with their feet on the bumpers of the limousine of American President when he is on a ceremonial visit. Since most of the garbage tanks are broken at the top, the hydraulic mechanism alone is not enough to disgorge their contents by tippings. The guys at the back have also put in efforts to prevent the grabage tanks from slipping and falling into the cavernous bellies of the trucks.
There are sweepers and smaller garbage disposal vehicles augmenting the garbage clearance efforts. All the employees wear green uniforms in the same nauseating shade as the garbage tanks. The sweepers come pushing plastic trollies with brooms sticking out like bonsai plants in flowerpots.
One would expect stench control of garbage as a major contribution of "technology transfer" resulting from foreign collaboration, but there no such luck with the vicinity of the garbage trucks stinking to the heavens with an obnoxious undescribable stench madeup of a mix of describable stenches like pungent , nauseating , sour and so on. If one is unfortunate to be behind or beside such a truck in the traffic, it is a sure invitation to asphyxia.
Let us wait and see whether there will be improvements from the lessons learnt in the first year of operation. I am sure that the employees uniforms and garbage tanks in green colour would figure in the annual report of this firm as its contribution to green effort in Corporate Social Responsibility !
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