GUWAHATI, Feb 20 – Setting high standards in effective integrated waste management, Titabor has become Assam’s first ‘zero waste town’. No other town in the State has been able to revolutionise municipal solid waste management the way Titabor has done.
Notably, as per the general standard, if any town succeeds in processing up to 80 per cent of waste, it can claim to be a zero waste town. Titabor, as part its consistent campaign, has set up a material recovery facility where all organic waste is managed through aerobic composting.
This move of door-to-door collection, some primary and some tertiary segregation, has resulted in reduction in foul odour and greenhouse gas emission from the dumpsite. Not just that, Titabor is also credited to have started Assam’s first bio-mining project to completely recover the dumpsite and move toward 100 per cent processing of waste, which is an exceptional case in Assam.
Dr Sanjay K Gupta, director of CARE North East Foundation, who is a global waste management expert and on board with the State government, told Media . “I hope the model can be expanded to other towns of the Northeast and Guwahati. Such projects have potential to revolutionise waste management as a climate solution in India and create jobs on waste collection.
Dr Gupta, who is a Swiss consultant, said the insanitary conditions had made Titabor an abode of filth and ill health but things began to change for better in 2019 when the transport of solid waste from the town to its dumping ground led to protest from people from the neighbouring panchayat as a result of which dumping was not allowed.
“The waste management was in complete disruption in the town like it is in most other urban areas. It was then that the municipal board chairman invited Dr Sanjay K Gupta to lend his expertise,” official sources said.
WITH REPORTS FROM AT
