Street hygiene:

Towards a greener and

cleaner Shillong

Several types of wastes leading to a PanIndia crisis

Sources

Typical waste generators

Components of solid
waste

Residential

Single and multifamily dwellings

Food wastes, paper, cardboard,

plastics, textiles,
glass, metals, ashes, consumer
electronics, batteries, oil, tires)
and
household hazardous wastes

Commercial

Stores, hotels, restaurants,

markets, office buildings

Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood,

food wastes, glass, metals,
special wastes, hazardous wastes

Institutional

Schools, government centre,

hospitals, prisons

Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood,

food wastes, glass, metals,
special wastes, hazardous wastes

Municipal services

Street cleaning, landscaping,

parks, beaches, recreational
areas

Street sweepings, landscape and

tree trimmings, general wastes
from parks, beaches, and other
Per capita waste generation in India increased from 0.44kg/day in 2001 to 0.5kg/day
in 2011 owing
recreational
areasto changing
lifestyles and increased purchasing power of individuals

Total Municipal Solid Wasted generated in urban India is estimated to be 68.8 million tons per year (TPY) or 188,500
tons per day

Increased dirtiness in Shillong

Shillong generates roughly 446 tons of e-waste annually
Absence of house to house collection for the whole city is
leading to dumping of waste in public places, streams and
nullahs
Poor drainage system is one reason why sewage flows into
the open
Layers of buildings have come up posing health hazards
and safety threats to citizens

Waste generated in Shillong

450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

Population density is swelling day by day and it has nearly

reached saturation point
Areas where there is a mixed population of locals and nonlocals like Polo, Nongthymmai, Rynjah, Nongmynsong,
Madanrting etc a sense of cleanliness is very much lacking
Non-locals have a little sense of belongingness for the city
while the locals too owing to their bad eating habits like
tobacco, Kwai have led to the loss of beauty of many places
2001

2011

Environmental impacts of Waste generation

in Shillong

The informal sector often just burn the e-wastes disposed in the
open which, in turn, produces hazardous gases and poses a serious
threat to the environment and human health

In the absence of proper solid waste collection system, substantial

quantity of the garbage generated finds its way into streams which
ultimately join the Umkhrah and Umshyrpi, and then onwards to the
Umiam Lake.

Almost 50% of inert material is present in the garbage and this high
density waste ultimately settles down on the beds of these streams
raising their bed levels which causes flooding of streams during
heavy rains in monsoon and can even erode banks of the streams,
deteriorating the environment further

Cleaning drives organized once a while/year by the respective

Dorbar Schnongs where the entire community gets involved in the
work of cleaning their own compounds as well as drains running

Current procedures of waste disposal in

Shillong
Waste management is the responsibility of multiple agencies
in Shillong
An organisation for solid waste management exists in the area
under the Municipal Board
Cleaning of road is done voluntarily by providing one person
from every family to work on allotted days
Within the Municipal area the conservancy department of the
Municipal Board is responsible for regular collection and
disposal of waste
The entire job is done with a fleet of 10 trucks, 2 tractors, 257
road sweepers, 5 conservancy supervisors, 6 sanitary
inspectors and a chief medical and health officer
Presently garbage collected is disposed into the gorges of the
trenching ground situated at MAWLAI on Shillong Guwahati
Road. This system is highly unhygienic and detrimental to the
Eco-system there.
A person has to walk nearly 320 mtrs radius for reaching a
dustbin, while ideally nobody should be required to walk more
than 60 mtrs to reach a dustbin

The Mawlynnong village model

Also referred to as Gods own garden has won the
acclaim of being the cleanest village in Asia in 2003
The main occupation of the villagers is agriculture.
They mostly grow betel nut. About 82 households live
in Mawlynnong
Keeping the surrounding environment clean is an age
old tradition
Local cleaning the roads, picking up leaves and
throwing garbage in the bin is a very common sight.
Bamboo garbage bins adorn every nook and corner of
the village highlight the consciousness of cleanliness
among the villagers
Mawlynnong has toilets in every house built under
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
Recently, the village has also installed around 30 solar
street lights. These street lights have been put at the
initiative of Community & Rural Development,
Meghalaya partnered by Infrastructure Development
Finance Company Foundation (IDFC) as part of its
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support.

Rendezvous with a MUDA officer

In our meet with an officer from the Meghalaya Urban

Development Authority, he presented before us many
problems being currently faced by the city, one amongst
them being pets littering at non-designated spots

This led to many altercations amongst the pets owner

and the other community members which created a lot of
disturbances in the recent past

One of us had been through the same situation in the

past and hence came up with the solution of carrying a
spray that dries the poop which then becomes very
convenient to pick up and dispose

Also, in housing complexes, pet defecation areas should

be within the premises. The owners should train their
pets to defecate in the slotted place only

Current initiatives being taken by the

government
Following techniques are being considered in India for the Solid Waste
management1. Palletisation,
2. Anaerobic digestion using bio methanation technology for
production of power,
3. Production of organic manure using controlled aerobic composting
Clean Shillong campaign
Posters which would be put up in buses coming from all over towards
Motphran, the heart and lifeline of the city
The state government, district councils, city-based NGOs, educational
institutions and individuals have come together for the first time to
start an awareness campaign and launch effective action programmes
to protect and preserve the rivers from the pollution that they have
been subjected to so far
In sync with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, presentation of certificates
for Green volunteers under the Mission Green to youths with
exemplary performance in making Meghalaya clean and green,
distribution of prizes to the winners of Swachh Bharat Run followed by
planting of tree saplings by the Governor and other dignitaries around
the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex took place on 2 nd October 2014

Major challenges faced in treatment of

the waste
To dump 100 MTS of Urban waste daily,
the Corporation need a 1Hectare of land
every year.
Open dumping pollutes air and sub-soil
water heavily.
The dumping grounds become breeding
centres for mosquitoes and other
disease carrying vectors.
Municipal workers and rag-pickers have
to work in un-hygienic conditions.
The waste undergoes anaerobic
composting producing offensive odours
and fostering harmful pathogens

Strategies that can be adopted in the

future
The current status of Solid Waste Management is far from satisfactory and needs improvement.
In order to maintain the cleanliness and hygiene the following actions are desired keeping in
view the Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000
1. Improvement on primary collection with house to house collection and segregation at
source.
2. Improvement in the secondary collection by doing away with age old masonry bin
collection.
Introduction of transfer points involving compactors for effective collection.

Improvement in transportation with introduction of closed body refuse vehicles.

Improvements in the disposal system by adopting sanitary landfill system and waste processing
facility.
Need for new institutional arrangement for coordination etc
PPP model to be adopted for waste management

THANK YOU