Segregation of waste starts in 11 city wards

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 8

Office-bearers of solid waste management company (Averda) hired by the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) claimed to implement segregation of waste (wet and dry) in 11 wards of the city at household level.

The MC, Averda and some city-based NGOs had conducted awareness drives in the last few months in this regard. As a result, 11 out of 85 wards achieved more than 75 per cent waste segregation at source, while 15 wards were fast catching up.

Amit Bajpai, director, Averda, said, “We launched a programme on segregation of waste in collaboration with the NGOs and the results are quite encouraging. In the first phase, which started in September 2020, we reached out to 42,128 households across 17 wards through 70 workshops. As a result, 29,639 households are now giving segregated waste.”

Averda along with its outreach partner the Feedback Foundation deployed a multi-layered intervention to change citizens’ behaviour.

Ajay Sinha of the Feedback Foundation said, “After several workshops for waste generators, triggering sessions and door-to-door visits, awareness levels about safe waste management practices have improved drastically. We created awareness in colleges, schools, markets and at household level.”

The agencies also worked on reducing garbage dumping hotspots by introducing innovative interventions, including creating rangolis, installing dustbins in markets vegetable and fruit mandis.

Bajpai said, “Citizens are being asked to download Swachhata App so that they can register their complaints about laxity in waste collection or dumping of waste in real-time. The MCA has been responding to these complaints with alacrity.”