Local government and voluntary organizations in community solid waste collection : a case study of the sailasreevihar community in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India | |
| Author | Mohanty, Anurupa |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UE-04-16 |
| Subject(s) | Refuse and refuse disposal--India Refuse collection--India |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The present trend of population growth in cities creates increasing negative impact on the urban environment in the form of poor water supply and sanitation, inadequate waste management and deteriorating air quality. In the study area Sailasreevihar in Bhubaneswar, solid waste management is observed as the major environmental problem affecting the aesthetic value of the community and causing a future threat on human health. ยท Earlier, BMC used to have door to door garbage collection practice. But, this practice could not continue for even a year. Then this practice gradually became more and more irregular and ultimately stopped. This irregularity and mismanagement of BMC's solid waste collection services prompted the NGOs to come forward to share the responsibilities of BMC in waste collection service provisions. The local NGO 'SW ARG' started door to door collection service from the NGO-membership households. The number of membership is highest for higher income group and lowest for lower income group households. Because, the higher income group households are aware of the solid waste problems and also their affordability is high. Whereas the lower income group households have low affordability and have negative mindset and unwilling to pay. Still SW ARG has motivated some lower income group households to be the member. During the field survey, it is observed that SW ARG is offering a regular waste collection service. BMC's provision of centralized waste collection bins are neither functional nor adequate. From the interview of BMC officials and local residents it is evident that BMC's mismanagement over the available human resources, machinery and equipments are the main causes behind its failure. Majority of the respondents feel that the solid waste situation is much better after SW ARG's intervention. The non-members also feel that it at least reduces the burden from the community collection bins. Here particularly the researcher analyzes the services of the NGO as depriving the lower income households from certain privileges of the community as they are not the members of the NGO. This promotes social exclusion for them which is not desirable for a healthy community. This goes against the motto of NGOs. During this research an attempt has also been made to make gender analysis of household solid waste handling and collection. From the field survey it is observed that as majority of women respondents are housewives, they get sufficient time to perform household activities and thus more women are responsible for handling and collection of wastes. It is also observed that women in the community are better participating in the community meetings than men. The interaction of women is also more with the NGO than men do. NGOs offer better and conducive environment for the women participation than BMC. One of the interesting findings of the research is that both BMC and SWARG are operating parallel in the same locality without any type of cooperation or partnership between them. This is a major drawback in the whole system. This absence of partnership affects the quality of services offered by the NGO and hence ultimately affecting the environment of Sailasreevihar. Finally on the basis of the research findings and conclusions, the researcher proposes some recommendations to better the solid waste collection practices and make it more environment friendly. |
| Year | 2004 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Sajor, Edsel E. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Amin, A. T. M. Nurul ;Kusakabe, Kyoko |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | RUDO/USAID |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004 |