Sanitation gains in JK
Jammu and Kashmir has changed fast in the last few years. The twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar have been at the center of this shift. Year after year, both cities have shown visible improvement in waste management.
Door-to-door garbage collection is now in place, public waste disposal points have increased, and city authorities are more active on cleanliness drives. This matters even more because both cities see heavy tourist footfall.
Srinagar’s Dal Lake, Mughal gardens, and Jammu’s temples attract lakhs of visitors annually. Clean cities are no longer a luxury. They are a necessity for public health and for tourism revenue.
However, despite the progress, the picture is not complete. The biggest gap right now is segregation at source. In both Jammu and Srinagar, dry waste and wet waste are still being mixed during collection. When organic waste mixes with plastic, glass, and other dry waste, it makes processing hazardous.
This mixing of waste means that compost plants cannot work efficiently. Landfills get overloaded. Workers face health risks. The problem is not only with the municipal system. Citizens also share responsibility.
Segregating kitchen waste from packaging waste at home is a basic step advised by scientific bodies and the Swachh Bharat guidelines. Without this habit, even the best collection system will struggle.
The urban focus has hidden a bigger crisis in rural Jammu and Kashmir. Out of 6,650 villages in the Union Territory, only 4,585 villages, about 69 percent, have door-to-door garbage collection.
The remaining 31 percent still depend on open dumping or informal disposal. That means more than 2,000 villages have no structured waste system at all. This gap is becoming more serious because rural areas are changing fast.
Urbanization, better incomes, and packaged goods have increased waste generation in villages too. But unlike cities, rural areas lack collection trucks, segregation sheds, and processing units. Most villages dump waste in open spaces, near water bodies, or on roadsides.
This creates pollution, blocks drainage, spreads disease, and harms livestock. Open dumping is presently the weak link in J&K’s sanitation chain. The government has tried to address this through Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen Phase II, SBM-G II.
The scheme has enough funds for municipal bodies and panchayats to build infrastructure like segregation sheds, compost units, and collection vehicles. But spending on the ground has been slow. Funds are available, yet utilization remains low. Assets created under the Rural Sanitation Department have not been audited properly, and dashboard data often does not match ground realities.
The goal of SBM-G II is to make villages cleaner, healthier, and more livable. That goal will be missed unless implementation speeds up. The authorities need to enforce segregation at source in cities.
Jammu and Srinagar must move from collection to processing. Fines for mixed waste, IEC campaigns, and color-coded bins can push behavior change. Besides, all villages must be brought under door-to-door collection.
The 2,065 uncovered villages need immediate inclusion. Panchayats should get vehicles and manpower with clear targets. Sanitation is no longer just about sweeping streets. It is about a full cycle: collect, segregate, process, and reuse. Jammu and Srinagar have started that cycle. Rural J&K is still waiting at the first step. Closing that gap is the next big test for J&K’s sanitation story. Cleaner cities and cleaner villages together will make the Union Territory truly Swachh.
