Participatory Solid Waste Management Planning: An Initiative By
Municipal Council Gopeshwar – Chamoli &
Himalayan Action Research Centre
With a view to strengthen the role of
municipality and community in planning the technical requirement and
database preparation for solid waste management, Chamoli -Gopeshwar
Municipal Council with Himalayan Action Research Center (HARC) and Society
for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) prepared a Detailed Project Report
(DPR) on Solid Waste Management (SWM). It was an initiative to introduce the
importance of community participation in entire process of solid waste
management planning.
In the preparatory stage of
the planning process, the need of initial orientation of the stakeholders,
who will be intensively involved in the planning process, was felt. The
municipal level orientation programmes were organized by HARC for the
elected representatives, district officials and members of Neighborhood
Sanitation Committee (NSC) including the sanitation workers of municipal
council. The focus was on sensitizing the participants on the need and
importance of participatory planning and developing their understanding of
technical aspects of preparing a DPR on solid waste management. The
technical orientation resulted into citizens’ active participation in
preparation the maps of their concerned wards. A number of suggestions were
given by various stakeholders for examples – road connectivity for loading
and transportation of solid waste, space for placement of dustbins,
identification of empty plots for compost pit construction within the wards,
secondary collection points etc.
Before starting the actual process for
DPR preparation, an understanding was developed between the municipal
council and the facilitating organization to clear the roles and
responsibility. Hence, a formal MoU has been signed between HARC and the
municipal council regarding the responsibilities of both the parties in plan
preparation.
In the initial stages,
efforts were made to create an enabling environment for citizen’s
participation in plan preparation. A number of street plays were organized
to generate awareness among the citizens of Chamoli - Gopeshwar Municipal
Council. Thousands of Pamphlets and folders were published by municipality
and HARC and distributed to get the suggestions and feed back from the
citizens on DPR. Banners and hoardings related to the participatory planning
were displayed on the main roads and market areas. The information regarding
the plan sharing workshops was displayed on cable T.V. network. Shopkeepers
were also involved in distributing the pamphlets. The data was collected
through regular meetings with the citizens and Elected Representatives. The
basic data for preparing town profile, base line data on generation of
solid waste and status of its present management was collected through
primary and secondary data collection methods. Women groups helped in
collecting the data on the waste generation at household level.
The consultation with citizens was the
most important part of the DPR preparation process. Thus, 36 ward level
meetings were organized to actively involve citizens in DPR preparation
process. These consultations helped in bringing out a number of suggestions
from various stakholders of the town. With the help of collected data from
primary as well as secondary sources a conceptual plan was prepared as per
citizens’ vision.
The Municipal Council Gopeshwar
organized a district level workshop to share the conceptual plan on 28th May
2007, in collaboration with HARC & PRIA to share the conceptual plan with
the community and all other stakeholders. Representatives of neighbourhood
sanitation committee, academic institutions, media, voluntary development
organizations, Government departments, trade unions and from the
municipality, participated in the workshop. Executive Officer municipal
council and HARC presented the findings of data analysis and the major
recommendation drawn out of the whole process. The workshop aimed at
collecting the responses from the citizens on the conceptual plan and
refining the same as per citizen’s need, to make it more people’s friendly
and participatory. The workshop was very successful as the citizens from all
the sections of society took keen interest in the plan and gave their
important suggestions for the same. This workshop helped in creating more
interest among the citizens to participate in the planning process.
Gopeshwar – Chamoli Municipal Council and HARC motivated media also to seek
the suggestions
from the citizens for DPR on SWM.
On the basis of the suggestions given by
the citizens on conceptual plan, the first draft of the plan was prepared
according to the guideline of Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for
Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). A centrally sponsored scheme for the
development of small and medium towns under Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission (JNNURM) being implementing in 63 big cities of India . To
share the key features of the draft plan with the citizens, Municipal
Council Gopeshwar organized a District level workshop on 30th June 2007, in
collaboration with HARC & PRIA at Zila (District) Panchayat Sabhagar,
Gopeshwar. About 144 citizens actively participated in the programme
including many sanitation workers. During the workshop it was decided that a
campaign would be organized at ward level to popularize the plan among the
citizens and get feedback from them. The suggestions of the citizens were
incorporated and final plan was prepared. Municipal Council Gopeshwar -
Chamoli again organized a district level DPR final plan-sharing workshop
with the objective to share the final plan with various stakeholders.
The team regularly coordinated with the
municipal council Gopeshwar – Chamoli and Directorate of Urban Development
for channelizing the process of DPR submission to the State. A proper
coordination has been developed among government and Urban Local Bodies
because of citizen’s participations and their interest in DPR preparation.
HARC was invited by Assistant Director,
Urban Development to share its experiences of Participatory SWM planning in
a state level workshop cum training program on “Municipal Solid Waste –
Plastic waste” organized by HRD foundation in collaboration of the State
Pollution Control Board Uttarakhand with the support of the Ministry of
Environment & Forest. The sharing of the participatory process at various
platforms resulted in raising interest of other municipalities, to prepare
this type of report in their areas with the help of HARC. Executive officers
of other municipalities also requested HARC to organize training for them on
participatory plan preparation.
Now the Municipal Council Gopeshwar –
Chamoli, has submitted the final report to the State Government for
financial support from Government of India.
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