For a greener tomorrow
The just concluded G20 summit in Rome had raised many expectations among environmental activists vis-à-vis climate change related issues. The summit which ended Sunday made a vague commitment to seek carbon neutrality by or around mid-century.
The summit it seems has put the larger issues on climate change to be discussed at a conference called by the United Nations in Glasgow, Scotland.
On climate change and threat to the natural environs many world leaders including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the G-20’s commitments mere ‘drops in a rapidly warming ocean.’ Even the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed the outcome was not enough.
However, leaving the world scenario on environment aside India has announced its commitment to check climate change and help the country achieve a greener tomorrow.
Primarily, to make cities garbage free and water secure Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already annouced launch of the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.
Under the new phase, it will be ensured that no untreated drain waste is discharged into any river of the country. Though the process of dumping untreated water has slowed down but the phenomenon is still continuing in many parts.
Interestingly, India is processing about one lakh tonne of waste every day and the Garbage Mountains in cities will be processed and removed completely under the new phases of the two missions.
Now, the goal of SBM-Urban 2.0 is to make the cities completely free of garbage underlining the scope of the country’s target in the next phase of AMRUT as improving sewage and septic management, making all the major cities water safe and ensuring that no sewage drains anywhere in our rivers.
According to the government, the outlay of SBM-U 2.0 is around Rs 1.41 lakh crore as the use of modern technology is also continuously increasing for the development of cities in the country.
Recently, the launch of the National Automobile Scrappage Policy pointed out that this new scrapping policy strengthens the campaign of waste to wealth and a circular economy.
Importantly, these missions signify a step forward in the march towards effectively addressing the challenges of rapidly urbanising India and will also help contribute towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
SBM-U 2.0 envisions to make all cities garbage free and ensure grey and black water management in all cities other than those covered under AMRUT, make all urban local bodies open defecation free+ and those with a population of less than one lakh as open defecation free++, thereby achieving the vision of safe sanitation in urban areas.
The mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste, utilising the principles of 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), scientific processing of all types of municipal solid waste and remediation of legacy dumpsites for effective solid waste management.
Notably, the SBM II has been announced at a time when a pandemic has hit the world and the waste generation has increased manifold. The mission has the capacity to lay a plan for the scientific waste management besides helping in improving the scenario of waste management in the rural areas.
KV Network
