Bandipora, Jul 14 (KNO): In a bid to ensure cleanliness in rural areas, T A Shah village of Arin Block in North Kashmir’s Bandipora District introduced solid waste management, a key component of Swach Bharat Mission (SBM), by establishing first garbage and plastic centre.
Block Development Officer Arin, Mir Tajamul while talking with news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that since solid waste management has emerged as a major environmental challenge in the present era, and they are looking for the effective scientific disposal practices of which first plastic and garbage centre has been setup in T A Shah village and will be extended to more villages of the block.
“We are thinking of introducing solid waste management (SWM) on an experimental basis. Depending on the feedback, we will decide on extending it in more villages,” he said.
In the absence of the SWM system, villagers generally dump garbage at dumping and manure pits. “Earlier, the system would work well as almost all the things used by villagers were organic. But now several non-compostable items, particularly plastic, have penetrated in a big way even in rural areas. These are coming in the way of maintaining rural cleanliness,” Tajamul said.
“In the absence of SWM, littering along roads has become common in several villages,” Tajamul said, adding that this has necessitated segregation at source even in rural areas on the lines of that being done in urban areas for the effective implementation of SWM.
While thinking of establishing the garbage and plastic centre in T A Shah, it took a lot of time to identify land, Tajamul said, adding that the concerned panchayat body played a key role in identifying the land.
He said that approval has been given for another garbage pit at Balhama Arin Panchayat and they are open for suggestions from civil societies in this regard.
Tajamul also said that steps are being taken to create awareness among villagers regarding segregation of solid waste so as to make it easy for disposal.
“While consultations are on with experts to choose an appropriate SWM model, the broad idea is to set up facilities for waste processing, composting and recycling in villages,” Tajamul said.
“Presently, the process of identifying more villages for introducing SWM is in consultation with Panchayat bodies of various villages of the block,” he said—(KNO)