Two-day National Workshop: Finalisation of Draft Manual on Municipal Solid Waste Management
Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) and Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) in collaboration with GIZ have prepared a revised manual for Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM).
To finalise the draft, MoUD organised a two day National Stakeholders Workshop on 24th-25th July, 2014 at Hall No 4, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, to obtain feedback from various stakeholders on the draft manual.
In his welcome speech, Mr Parmod Kumar, Director (UD & PHE), MoUD said solid waste management and health issues are interlinked with each other and therefore suggested an integrated approach towards solid waste management rather than maintaining a nuclear approach.
The welcome speech was followed by “Lighting of Knowledge Lamp” by the distinguished delegates of the inaugural session Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary MOUD, Government of India, Mr. Heiko Warnken, Head, Economic Cooperation & Development, German Embassy, India, Mr. Stefan Helming, Country Director, GIZ-India, Mr Neeraj Mandloi, Joint Secretary (UD & MD), MoUD and Mr. Pramod Kumar Director (UD & PHE), MoUD.
The inaugural session was chaired by Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary MOUD, Government of India. In his inaugural address, Mr. Aggarwal took spoke about the glorious history of Indian civilization and its advanced urban planning which placed a high priority to hygiene and sanitation. He compared the urgent action required for municipal solid waste management to many challenges India faced and overcame successfully and highlighted the need to take issues of MSWM seriously and solve it on a war footing.
The august gathering was also addressed by Mr. Stefan Helming, Country Director, GIZ-India; Mr. Heiko Warnken, Head, Economic Cooperation & Development, German Embassy, India.
Mr Heiko Warnken congratulated the team on preparing the easy to read manual and shared the German experience in the area of municipal solid waste management with the august gathering. He mentioned about the Indo German Cooperation’s special focus on cleaning of holy river Ganga and possibility of integrating the same with solid waste management.
Mr Stephen Helming, talked about GIZ association with MoUD that dates back to 2008 when GIZ had done a project on JNNRUM. Later, GIZ started working on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management project with the ministry.
The workshop was attended by state principal secretaries, municipal commissioners, technical orgaisations, academia from across the country, international organisations, industries and NGOs working in the field and the session was also chaired by Mr. D.S. Mishra, Additional Secretary MoUD.
The sessions were attended by many well-known dignitaries from the field of municipal solid waste management and urban planning The discussions that followed the technical sessions were insightful and have been documented for finalisation of the manual by the expert committee. The Commissioner of Dehradun Municipal Corporation, Uttarakhand also presented his innovation for source segregation during the workshop.
Background about the MSWM Manual
The Ministry of Urban (MoUD), Government of India had developed a Guidance Manual for SWM for all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and published it simultaneously with the Rules in 2000.
The Government of India continues to address these challenges and to support the States and ULBs in developing modern and appropriate MSWM systems, through the draft revised MSW (M&H) Rules 2013 by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the parallel revision of the MSWM Manual 2000 by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). This revised manual is based on learnings from 14 years’ experience gained in India, post the notification of these Rules in 2000.
This revised manual on MSWM is designed to support decision makers at state and urban local body levels, technical staff experts and academia involved in the proper management and implementation of all MSWM related activities. The manual reflects upon recent technological, managerial, financial and policy level developments.
The salient points that will bring change in the municipal solid waste management sector
- MoUD for the first time defines a vision statement for Municipal Solid Waste Management for the country
- All states mandated to prepare and implement a MSWM strategy/policy in line with the revised MSW Rules of MoEF and the National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP) of MoUD, GoI.
- Reuse, recycle and decentralised systems become important - A framework provided for ULBs to prepare a MSWM Plan in 7 steps while looking into various options, enhanced private sector participation, adoption of principles of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), integration of the informal sector as appropriate.
- Focus given to an approach for an “Integrated Solid Waste Management”, which not only focuses on technical aspects but also addresses other related issues including sustainable and balanced development.
- Provided improved institutional approaches and planning tools to ensure implementation in line with a long term vision for MSWM in urban areas with practical examples from states.
- The reflection of new as well as international technologies and approaches available in the MSWM sector in India.