Cities get awards for cleanliness, but lack systems for processing, disposal and recycling of waste, says Centre for Science and Environment

New Delhi: Cities were awarded under the Swachh Survekshan-2018 for their work on cleaning the city but not on how to process and recycle the waste, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said on Tuesday, on the latest cleanliness survey results released by the government. [caption id=“attachment_4494433” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] In a statement, CSE’s Deputy Director Chandra Bhushan said, “Majority of the top 50 cities (with population above 1 lakh) are visibly clean, but do not have appropriate systems for processing and disposal. They continue to collect waste and dump it in poorly managed landfills and dumping sites. As per the CSE analysis, most of the cities in the top 50 do not collect segregated waste at source.” “In Chandigarh, NDMC (North Delhi Municipal Council), SDMC (South Delhi Municipal Council), Varanasi, Ghaziabad, greater Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur and Jaipur, there is no collection of segregated waste at source. At some places, however, mixed waste is further sorted into different fractions,” the CSE said in a statement. It stated that Indore, ranked as the cleanest city in the country, has definitely created systems for segregation, collection, processing and disposal. “But Indore’s model has been found to be highly capital-intensive as it is based on centralised processing. Many cities cannot afford to manage their waste with such a capital-intensive waste system,” it also stated. Eleven out of the top 50 cities are from Madhya Pradesh. Though, collection has drastically improved in these cities, segregation at source, processing and disposal are still a concern, CSE said. According to the statement, Chandigarh (the third cleanest in the recent results) has no effective system to segregate waste at source. “The city has received much flak in the recent past from its residents for its ineffective collection and transportation of wastes. The city’s processing plant, managed by the Jaypee group in DaduMajra, has been under legal turmoil,” it added. Cities such as Tirupati, Aligarh and Ghaziabad have no proper processing and disposal mechanisms in place. “Jaipur (ranked 39) has a centralised composting plant (handles mixed waste) managed by IL&FS and a dump yard where all the garbage is disposed,” the CSE said in the statement.