Jammu: In a stark contrast of waste management practices and impacts, Palli village in Jammu’s Samba district has become India’s first carbon-neutral panchayat by installing a 500 KW solar power plant that powers the entire village, while Kot Bhalwal dumping site in Jammu’s outskirts continues to pollute the land, water, and air in the vicinity by dumping municipal solid waste unscientifically.
Kalagaon Kalari, a village in Jammu’s periphery, has been living under the shadow of the Kot Bhalwal dumping site for more than 15 years. The dumping site, which is spread over 19.5 acres, has accumulated nearly three lakh tonnes of legacy waste that is dumped unscientifically without any segregation, treatment, or processing.
The dumping site has become a health hazard and an environmental nuisance for the villagers as well as the commuters travelling on the recently constructed ring-road. The site emits foul smell, pollutes the air, water, and land, and attracts dogs, rats, flies, mosquitoes, and other vectors of diseases.
Municipal solid waste from Jammu city and its adjoining areas gets dumped here without any segregation, treatment, or processing.
“We have to face many health problems such as asthma, allergies, skin infections, etc. The garbage also attracts insects and animals which can spread diseases. We protested for over a month for the removal of this landfill site but the protestors were forcefully dispersed,” Sarpanch Rajdev Singh said.
Kot Bhalwal dumping site faced staunch opposition and criticism from various quarters. Local residents reached out to legislators and administration. Environmentalists, civil society organizations and media criticized the affect landfill site was having on the residents of village Kalagaon Kalari. The villagers have been requesting the authorities to shift the landfill site away from habitation for over a decade but their appeals have gone unheard. The site is still operational due to lack of alternative sites or facilities, Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) officials said.
As per the JMC website, to mitigate the issues related to the unscientific disposal of municipal solid J&K government approved the establishment of an Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) project by National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) in 2019.
JMC first identified the site for setting up Solid Waste Treatment Plant at Bhgawati Nagar but due to stiff opposition from the locals, the plan was shelved despite spending crores, sources informed.
Later, plans were drawn to set up a 350 MT capacity ISWM plant along with an ancillary bio-CNG generating plant and bio-landfill at Kot Bhalwal, Jammu with the estimated project cost of Rs. 74.41 crore. But the project has jumped the deadline of 2 years and unscientific waste disposal in Kot Bhalwal landfill site continues to be a pain for the villagers.
According to UNEP, Integrated Solid Waste Management refers to the strategic approach to sustainable management of solid wastes covering all sources and all aspects, including generation, segregation, transfer, sorting, treatment, recovery and disposal in an integrated manner, with an emphasis on maximizing resource use efficiency.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in one of its reports published some years back said that the second most serious problem that city dwellers face (after unemployment) is insufficient solid waste disposal.
“Whenever there is a discussion on waste Management, the municipal authorities raise an issue about non availability of garbage dumping sites. But for decades, authorities in J&K state have not devised any mechanism to treat the garbage in cities and towns. The Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is simply lifted from one place and then dumped at another site. Our Urban Local Bodies are merely re-locating the waste and not treating it and there are many municipal institutions who do not even relocate the waste as these municipalities don’t have a land to dump the municipal waste,” said Satyam Sharma, a climate activist.
In complete contrast, another village from Jammu and Kashmir has been setting an example. Palli village has adopted a holistic and integrated approach to manage its waste in a scientific and sustainable manner.
The village has implemented various measures such as segregating waste at source, composting organic waste, recycling plastic waste, installing a solar power plant, digitizing records and transactions, and creating awareness among residents.
The solar power plant was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 24, 2022, on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Day.
“It’s India that has come up with a living example in the form of Palli village to the Glasgow pledge. Palli village, with its enthusiastic and dedicated elected representatives full of dreams, has shown how to implement the Glasgow pledge,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his address on Panchayati Raj Day. He added that Palli was a major step towards achieving the Glasgow goal of making India carbon-neutral by 2070.
Palli village has achieved multiple benefits by managing its waste in a scientific and sustainable manner. The village has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions and is working towards achieving carbon neutrality. The village has enhanced its energy security, self-reliance, and resilience while saving land, water, and other resources. The village has set an example and inspiration for other villages and cities to follow suit.
“We have been using solar cookers even though it is slow and not feasible to be used everyday. But govt distributed these cookers to ensure that people get used to using solar energy in their day-to-day life and we have used it a couple of times,” said Shobit Kumar, a resident of village Palli.
Palli village has also received recognition and appreciation from various quarters, such as the Prime Minister, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), and the media.
India generates about 150,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day, out of which only about 20% is processed and the rest is dumped in open landfills or unscientifically disposed of. This poses serious environmental and health risks for the people and the planet.
There is a dire need to adopt a holistic and integrated approach to manage its municipal solid waste in a scientific and sustainable manner by implementing the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 effectively. Palli village and Kot Bhalwal dumping site represent two contrasting scenarios of waste management practices and impacts in India. While Palli village has shown how to achieve carbon neutrality by adopting scientific and environmentally friendly waste management practices, Kot Bhalwal dumping site has shown how unscientific waste dumping can cause environmental and health hazards.
The examples of Palli village can serve as a motivation for other villages and cities to follow suit. The examples of carbon-neutral villages can serve as an inspiration. These villages have demonstrated that it is possible to achieve carbon neutrality by adopting simple yet innovative solutions that are locally appropriate and community-driven. They have also shown that carbon neutrality is not only good for the environment but also for the economy and society. By learning from these success stories and overcoming the existing barriers, India can transform its waste management scenario from a problem to an opportunity for sustainable development.
The story has been published with the help of a grant by GAIA Asia Pacific Media Fellowship on Climate – South and East Asia.
