Журнал экосистемы и экографии

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Solid Waste Management-Villages Cannot be Left Behind: Case of A Hill State-Uttarakhand (India)

RS Goyal

One of the critical fall out of indiscriminate market-based growth is huge generation of waste in cities and villages alike. In Uttarakhand, challenges related to Solid Waste Management (SWM) are multipronged. The state is placed in an extremely fragile ecological zone. About 86 per cent of area is mountainous. These mountains are young and disaster prone. Even minor changes in ecological balance are capable of triggering huge disasters. Non-scientific and non-systematic disposal of waste in the valleys, roadside, rivers is in these mountains is an open invitation to disasters. The state is generating approximately 3010 Metric Tons Of Solid Waste Every Day (MTPD) in 2011. It is projected to go up to 4881 MTPD in 2021 and 9355 MTPD in 2041. Of this, urban areas generate around 996 MTPD of MSW. About 17 per cent of the total waste is plastic waste. The present SWM system in the state is highly insufficient and fragile and caters to urban areas only. What about the waste generated in villages and over 30 million tourists visiting state every year? Statistics have revealed that more than two thirds of waste in the state is being generated by these two entities. Under the given circumstances, it is assumed that almost all of it is being disposedoff on roadside, valleys, rivers and other similar places causing colossal damage to environment and ecosystem of state. Furthermore, state is not even talking about it. This paper discuss the magnitude of the problem and argues that making towns and villages zero waste, hundred percent resource recovery and promoting sustainable and zero waste tourism must find a place in the waste management vision and strategy of the state Government. Without this, the towns and villages will continue to dispose of waste in rivers, polluting environment, damaging ecosystem and violating law of land.