Urban Development & Housing dept rapped for poor waste management

The lacklustre approach of the urban local bodies in the state in managing solid waste coupled with the lack of effective measures to curb water pollution has pushed down Orissa to the 11th slot on the Environmental Performance Index prepared by the Planning Commission.

The performance of the state has been particularly poor on two fronts- water pollution and waste management. While in water pollution, the state's score is low primarily due to discharge of untreated sewage into rivers, the poor performance in waste management is attributed to lack of mechanism to manage the municipal solid waste.

Expressing grave concern over the situation, the state forest & environment department has rapped the department of housing & urban development for its sluggish action, urging the latter to expedite steps for setting up of sewage treatment plants.

"There is immediate requirement of setting up of a system for scientific management or urban solid waste generated by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. There has been no satisfactory progress made even with repeated reprimand from the Orissa High Court”, Aurobindo Behera, principal secretary (forest & environment) has said in a letter to Sourabh Garg, secretary (housing & urban development).

Stating that urban local bodies (ULBs) are required to obtain consent to discharge treated sewage effluent and authorization for management of municipal solid waste from the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Behera pointed out that out of 103 ULBs, only 58 have taken authorization despite repeated reminders from SPCB.'

Management of public waste is another major issue in the state. The SPCB had asked eight major ULBs to transport segregated and cleaned plastic waste to the cement plant of ACC at Bargarh. Though the transportation of such waste commenced during March 2010 in the presence of three sitting judges of the Orissa High Court, the response thereafter has been very poor, Behera observed.

The ULBs of Cuttack, Angul and Bargarh have sent six, two and 21 truckloads of plastic waste respectively for co-processing while the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has so far sent just one truckload of plastic waste.