Cost effectiveness of Solid Waste Management operation in Jaipur City:
Case Study
Vivek Kalia
Chairman
Public Transport & Garage Committee
Jaipur Municipal Corporation
Jaipur
Background:
Environment has not been a major concern until recent decades. Throughout the history,
people have taken resources from nature, transformed them into products for their use
and then discarded the left over. The practice of course often forced our early ancestors to
change their locations as build up of waste rendered existing settlement inhabitable. This
was possible when the human population was small and vacant places were easy to
found. During the last century we have experienced the explosion in scientific
achievement, expansion and unbridled proliferation of industries and factories,
improvement in hygienic and population boom, rising of consumption oriented societies
growth of concentrated human habitation, metropolis & mega cities.
It is simply no longer possible to avoid waste that we create in different forms- Solid,
liquid or gaseous and disposing of them is becoming more and more of a burden. Solid
Waste management is a most serious and most discussing issue now a days. This is
because the services are poorly performed, resulting in problem of health, sanitation and
environmental degradation. This is important that steps of Solid Waste Management
operation should be followed which are as follow:
Steps of Solid Waste Management Operation
Primary Collection
There are no systems of primary collection of waste in most of the cities. The waste is
thrown on the streets and collection efforts from street bins are inadequate in number and
ill designed. So to avoid the above the waste should be collected at the sources in
segregated manner.
Waste Storage depots.
Open sites or metal bins are very much unhygienic and require multiple handling of
waste. Waste is more often seen outside the bins than inside them, since they are not
cleaned daily. Waste should be collected in separate containers at the source.
Street Sweeping
It has been seen that street sweeping is not carried out regularly. Several streets are
occasionally swept or are not swept at all. Hence sweeping of streets and public places
should be done on all days of the year.
Transportation of Waste
Transportation of waste is done by variety of vehicles such as three wheeler, tractors,
trucks, dumper placers etc. The transportation system is not synchronized, thus the fleet
of vehicles is not optimally utilized. Hence, the transportation system should
synchronized.
Processing disposal of waste
Generally no processing of waste is done except in a few cities and disposal of waste is
done in a very unscientific manner, resulting sites eliminate a foul smell, becomes
breeding ground for files, rodent and pests and pose serious threat to underground water
resources.
Amongst, above-mentioned Solid Waste Management operation steps, transportation of
waste are of high cost amongst them. Transportation of waste is done through a variety of
vehicles such as three wheeler, trucks, and tractor. Due to ill planning and management
of municipal bodies the vehicles are not optimally utilized. This is because the
transportation system is not synchronized with the system of primary collection and bulk
waste storage facilities. Due to ill planning of transportation system, the entire system of
Solid waste management operation has become out dated and highly inefficient. This is
resulting into problems related to health, sanitation and environmental degradation
On the other hand, due to lack of knowledge about quality and quantity of waste,
transportation cost has become very high.
Jaipur Intervention
Recognizing the problem of transportation, JMC has intensified efforts to make
transportation system more efficient.
The planning was done area wise therefore the quality and quantity of waste may be
assessed. The areas were divided into three categories as Red, yellow, and green. Red is
identified as 1st waste producing area and also having waste which produces foul smell
like Fruit & Vegetable, Slaughter houses, Walled city area having dense population and
no place for storing waste, Markets etc. Yellow is identified as second waste producing
area and areas having mid level density of population, Green is identified as third or low
waste producing area and areas having scattered population like newly developed or
developing colonies.
Based on this the route chart was decided for optimum utilization of transportation
system. Hence the transportation system was synchronized with both primary collection
and bulk waste storage facilities.
Due to garage privatization, the transportation problems were sorted out and
transportation system has become synchronized. The incentive scheme was initiated for
driver and helpers against diesel & tyre saving, also for low maintenance cost. This
helped in reducing transportation cost by saving diesel and synchronizing route chart.
In 1999- 2000, the expenditure on transportation was 125 lakh. Diesel charges were
increased in 2000. Accordingly, increase in cost of diesel was expected for transportation
system of Municipal Corporation. It was expected that during 2000 expenditure on
transportation would be Rs 150 lakh in 2000- 2001, but, surprisingly, it was only 83 lakhs
in 2000-2001, due to synchronization of routes and incentive scheme.