Home To The Thousand Garbage
Seram Neken *
"Of the numerous innovative public services taken up during Okram Ibobi Singh's regime, the Zero Garbage Campaign in the city was perceived as the most commendable and relevant programme during its flag-off on 13 August, 2010.
With the slogan 'My City is getting ready! Sign up - Zero Garbage Campaign', the government launched the campaign under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission with hopes and vision for a clean city, with promises for a long term waste management policy. However, the mission has now been reduced to zero performance with Imphal city being home to a thousand garbage"
– Writes Seram Neken
Lack of a concrete waste management policy and proper disposal site has been the cause for failure of the Zero Garbage campaign in Manipur. Besides lack of public awareness on the disposal of garbage, the government's failure to locate proper garbage dumping site and chemical treatment of the disposed wastes has been major drawbacks of the initiative.
According to the programme of the campaign, a long term policy was to be formulated to make the city waste-free where garbage is drained out directly to the treatment plant. The government even announced strict punishments for those public who violated the norms of garbage disposal. Necessary equipment was also promised to be procured for use in solid waste management and collection. However, zero garbage campaign still remains on paper and verbatim.
Cleanliness is a part of our civilization. A man of dirty habits is far from civilization. So, with the progress of civilization man cleans himself more and more. He cleans his body. He cleans his mind and heart. He cleans all his action and manners. He cleans his soul. This will lead him to the highest form of civilization.
But all other cleanings depend on the cleanliness of body. If we clean our bodies and limbs, we will be free form many kinds of diseases. Clean food cooked in the clean pot and served in the clean dishes, will give us health and happiness. If we clean our bodies regularly, our complexion will be brighter. We will look fit and smart. If we wear clean dress our mind will be happy.
Cleanliness gives us a cheerful mind. We are more interested to write on a clean notepad than on a dirty one. Hence, we write more and better. We like to read clean books to understand better. So, cleanliness brings us progress and improvement in all fields of activities and in all spheres of life. By cleanliness of body and limbs, cleanliness of all our articles of use, cleanliness of our dwellings and soul, cleanliness of surroundings, we gradually move towards divinity. Hence, there is saying. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness".
Garbage in a city causes pollutions of water, air and land. Disposal areas attract wildlife, such as rats, dogs and birds endangering interactions between wildlife and humans. It brings diseases such as plague, meningitis, pneumonitis, and toxoplama-gondii. Accumulation of infectious or toxic waste items lead to infectious diseases associated with medical waste that can cause or heighten an epidemic.
Besides contamination of air & water, garbage pollution in a city causes increased disease risk, attraction of undesirable wildlife, soil sealing and flood problems. Throwing away garbage instead of other disposal methods like burning and recycling causes sanitation concerns too. Absence of disposal regulations for the individual homes, shops and other establishments increases the garbage accumulation in the city on a large scale.
The garbage dumping site of Imphal Municipal Council located at Lamphelpat has become a den of bacteria with detection of E-Coli contaminated water at the Langol area. E-Coli is a dreaded bacteria which causes severe cramps and diarrhea. Since many poor people are earning their livelihood by fishing from the Langol area, it's a serious health hazard. It is very necessary that dumping of waste shall be done with treatment of chemicals for manning the unwanted germs.
One of the major problems facing a city is the disposal of waste specifically garbage. There is no solution to the problem unless proper wastes bins and their maintenance are designed in the city to address this problem. Inappropriate disposal of sewage and garbage has led to the substantially deterioration of ground water. Unfortunately, the growing population and inadequacy of many municipal water supplies has led to the exploitation of ground water for public drinking water.
Health deterioration in areas where there is improper access to garbage disposal are witnessed. Many cities around the world are attempting to regulate garbage disposal in a variety of ways. Some of the ways of reducing garbage is by recycling and reusing as much as it is feasible. Many urban areas are attempting to encourage that.
Another way is to make it easy to properly dispose of garbage. Many areas are prohibiting non recyclables in certain products like the plastics. Others are making it illegal to dispose of certain dangerous items without the proper authorization.
Garbage pollution is a serious problem in Imphal city. These range from creating an unpleasant atmosphere to creating a center for disease infection to altering the environmental quality of the water, soil and native populations, from dirtying the city to disturbing road traffic.
Besides proper education to the public through proper media, it is time for the government to implement a waste management policy with a properly treated disposal site.
* Seram Neken wrote this article for Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition) . (The writer is a free lance journalist based in Imphal, Manipur
This article was webcasted on August 04 2011.
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