PRESS RELEASE:
ZERO WASTE HIMALAYAS CONDUCTS VERMICOMPOSTING TRAINING FOR PRERNA GAON RESIDENTS
An afternoon training programme on vermi-composting for residents of Prerna Gaon under Daragaon
ward Gangtok Municipality, was undertaken by the Zero Waste Himalayas Group on Monday the 15th of
July at Prerna Gaon. Around 35 residents attended the training which was conducted by Mr Roshan Rai
of NGO DLR Prerna of Darjeeling and a member of the Zero Waste Himalayas Group. The meeting was
also attended by the Deputy Mayor Gangtok Municipality Mr. Sangay G Bhutia and representatives of
WWF India, Sikkim.
One of the key challenges facing the Gangtok Municipality Corporation in managing the solid waste
generated by the city, is finding ways to reduce the volume of solid waste being taken down to the 32nd
Mile waste dumping site while ensuring that it does not get thrown illegally in jhoras and surroundings.
The 32nd Mile dumping site is already overflowing with waste and no alternate site has been found for
another landfill. The AusAID Gangtok Water Supply and Sanitation programme executed in 2005-06 had
initiated the process of daily collection of waste from households in some pilot wards like Arithang and
today this model service has been extended by the GMC to most of its wards. However the crucial
second step to this process, namely segregation of waste at source, could not be taken up due to the
winding up of the project and today Gangtok suffers from the fact that all its collected waste is mixed
and dumped as such in the landfill, thereby creating all sorts of problems. Some amount of material is
recovered from this waste for recycling by the waste handlers attached to the garbage vehicles and the
rag pickers at the site. However the majority of the waste continues to pile up in the landfill, breeding
flies and stench, polluting the river and creating an environmental hazard for future generations.
As a first step towards adopting a decentralized and environmentally friendly approach to solid waste
management, a pilot project on Zero Waste was initiated in Daragaon Ward under the Sustaining Urban
Sustainability project, facilitated by SWEDED and CEE and spearheaded by the GMC and the Zero Waste
Himalayas group, represented by ECOSS. The project was launched on the 25th of May at Prerna Gaon in
Daragaon ward in the presence of the Hon MP Lok Sabha, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor and the Ward
Councillor. Residents of Prerna Gaon led by the members of Prena Gaon Vikas Sanstha (PGVS) had long
since been demanding the extension of services of municipality garbage vehicles to their area. In a
collaborative effort the GMC agreed to provide their vehicles for removal of garbage and the nearby
Sikkim Government College authorities agreed to provide a window of leniency by allowing the vehicles
to enter the college premises in the early morning for removal of the garbage. The garbage vehicles
have been in operation for over a month and a half now and residents are happy as their area is cleaner,
the jhoras and spaces are not littered with garbage and people are more disciplined about their waste.
PGVS collects garbage fees from its residents and pays for the running costs of the vehicles and the
waste collectors who take the waste from the houses to the vehicle collection points. They have also set
up transit collection containers for the waste and are in the process of moving into the second step of
the Zero Waste process which is segregation of waste at source, through the provision of separate bins
for different types of waste. To support this effort the PGVS had requested the ZWH group to conduct a
training on composting so that those residents who were interested could do their own composting at
home. The ZWH Group thus roped in the expertise of Mr Roshan Rai of DLR Prerna, Darjeeling for the
training.
Mr Rai explained in simple terms the principles of composting and vermicomposting, the physiology and
habits of worms and the types of containers and materials to be used . He elaborated on the do’s and
don’ts and the key points for successful vermicomposting based on his personal and collective
experience in conducting such trainings in the Darjeeling Municipality. There followed an active
interactive session between trainer and the enthusiastic audience with most participants expressing
their eagerness to start vermicomposting at home. In the concluding session, Mr R. P. Gurung of ECOSS
provided examples of non-biodegradable household waste and explained their nature and value for
recycling purposes. He urged the participants to individually segregate, collect and examine the waste
being generated by them at house hold level and to seek ways and means of reducing and recycling
these. In some cases they should also seriously consider rejecting the use of goods whose discards were
not recyclable. All this would go a long way to make Prerna Gaon a model case for other areas to
emulate. The GMC and the Ward Councillor Mr Bhaskar Basnett are actively engaged in locating a
suitable area for setting up a Resource Recovery Centre for Daragaon’s waste. In the days to come it is
hoped that Prerna Gaon would successfully implement waste segregation at household level and the
practice would be replicated in other areas of the ward.