Urban Development dept joins hands with JICA to develop solid waste management project

Kolkata: The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has tied up with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to develop a model project on solid waste management involving six municipalities in Hooghly.

The model may be adopted by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) after seeing its success, said Mayor Firhad Hakim, who is also the minister of urban development, on Tuesday. Hakim held a meeting with the senior officials of JICA at KMC's headquarter in this regard.

JICA has already allotted a fund of Rs 170 crore for the project. It would extend technical assistance to various municipalities in Hooghly. After the meeting, Hakim said there are some problems regarding segregation of solid wastes under various municipal areas.

Through the new project, segregation would be done at the source level. A committee has been constituted to look after the overall project. Uttarpara Municipality will help other municipalities in the district, as it has already started segregating solid wastes. The initial target is to achieve 100 percent segregation of the wastes. To make it a sustainable process, KMDA has formed a committee with the chairman of all the six municipalities, Hakim maintained.

He also said that it would be done in a scientific manner, so that biomasses can be sold for producing fertilisers. Rag pickers would be given training so that they can pick the material in a scientific way. According to Hakim, fertilisers should be developed out of 50 percent of the total produce, while 20-30 percent solid wastes would be recycled. The remaining wastes would be dumped on a dumping ground.

The KMC may adopt the model. Two laboratories will be set up at Baidyabati, while one will be installed at Uttarpara.

"We have held a meeting with JICA. They will provide financial and technical assistance for the project. JICA has also shown interest in a similar project by KMC. We will adopt the project for KMC after the current project achieves 100 percent success. The capacity of the project in the district would be around 200 tonnes, while in the KMC area it would be 6,000 tonnes. KMDA will provide support so that the municipalities can sell the wastes after they are segregated," Hakim said.