Building on the gains of Swachh Bharat Mission

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is set to complete 10 years. Under SBM, 120 million families have been provided access to safe sanitation at their homes and most of them use the facility. Beyond some counter data crunching, there is universal and scientific admission that India’s toilet revolution brought a range of benefits for human health and well-being. This includes a significant reduction in infant mortality, better school attendance for girls, fewer crimes against women, higher employment and earnings, and better groundwater quality. UNICEF reported in 2018 that, by reducing damage costs, freedom from open defecation has saved 5.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a year.

The massive number of household latrines will need to be functional and used, not to fritter away the valuable gains. Public and community toilets to cover the excluded, are over six-and-a-half lakh, but less than 4,000 cities are certified to have kept these clean and hygienic. Slippages can happen if users and managers are not alert.

The celebration of a golden decade of Indian sanitation set in motion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is legitimate. But now the Mission faces the more slippery world of solid and liquid waste management, compared to the provision of low flush, twin-pit toilets across needy communities. For urban spaces, the task is bigger and more complex. Only 248 of the cities have broadly reached the parameters of Garbage Free Cities (GFC) covering aspects of collection, segregation, storage, scientific processing, cleaning of surface water, compliance and civic behaviour. Another 500 are hopefully approaching the goal. Still, most of the 4,900 urban bodies must do significant heavy lifting to be fully garbage-free in a shorter time.

Processing of waste is true only with the elimination of waste. It starts not at the processing plant, but with segregation at the source. The task needs to be universalised without compromise. Despite a spirited campaign, the urgency has not yet sunk into the civic mind. This calls for a full-scale revival of behaviour change, like in the last phase. By systematic action, 18% processing of waste in urban areas in 2014 has moved close to 80% today. Source segregation at the ward level moved from about nothing to 91%. This official data is encouraging. But gaps and garbage still stare us in the face.

Processing infrastructure, designed to convert waste to resources, be it compost, biogas or electricity, has caught the attention of SBM managers. Plants of all categories are over 6,000, with the highest capacity under waste-to-compost units. This is where technology, innovation and enterprise must come in. About 5,000 startups are recognised in the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) category, spread over 230 districts. Policymakers and experts know that this has to grow exponentially. Policy and private sector response look to be moving in the direction of a vibrant waste-to-wealth industry. Public funding and budgetary outlays have never faltered from the inception of SBM.

The country has over 220 million tonnes of waste lying in landfills bordering many cities — Bhalswa, Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bandhwari in the National Capital Region, Deonar and Mulund dumping sites in Mumbai, Mittaganahalli in Bengaluru to name a few. These depressing hillocks, 2,425 of them, occupy 28,500 acres of land. The good news is that 40% of this waste has already been remediated and 4,500 acres of land recovered. Cities like Indore and Lucknow have set examples by converting recovered land to popular green-scapes. Smaller towns may find the task arduous in terms of mobilising the necessary resources for transforming garbage dumps. Also, legacy dumpsites can pose a chicken-and-egg situation during the process of getting dismantled. City waste must have an end destination. If not segregated and processed, and not allowed in old dumpsites, it may be dumped in new garbage sites.

Local communities have taken the responsibility to transform as many as five lakh specially identified spots of filth as part of a Swachhata Hi Seva programme in the run-up to Gandhiji’s birth anniversary. This is a great demonstration of resolve. But the Swachh Bharat Mission and the people of India will be required to do much more to deliver sampoorn swacchhata (total cleanliness) in the coming years.

Akshay Rout is former director general,Swachh Bharat Mission.The views expressed are personal