Complaints by citizens about civic amenities in the national Capital have increased on issues ranging from sewerage, waste management and air pollution, the Praja Foundation in ‘The report on Status of Civic Issues in Delhi, 2023,’ said on Friday. The report aims to understand growing problems of solid waste management (SWM), sewerage treatment, air and water quality, that impact Delhi’s climate change.
The report said rising concerns have seen a 36% increase in number of overall citizen complaints from 3,30,099 in 2019 to 4,47,468 in 2022. Notably, sewerage-related complaints significantly rose by 75%, escalating from 78,997 in 2019 to 1,38,545 in 2022.
Additionally, complaints regarding ‘water contamination’ rose by 39% from 35,679 in 2019 to 49,492 in 2022. “The SWM Rules 2016 by the Union Government mandates effective collection and segregation of waste at source.
However, there is a need for Municipal Corporation of Delhi(MCD) to improve - for instance, although MCD claims 100% door-to-door collection, complaints related to ‘garbage not collected’ increased by 285% from 1,068 in 2016 to 4,117 in 2022.
Moreover, there is a lack in source segregation as the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). SWM Action plan states, as of February 2023, out of the 250 wards, only 12 (5%) wards are carrying out 100% segregation at source.” said, Milind Mhaske, CEO, Praja Foundation.
“Along with the SWM Rules 2016, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) recommends the Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) system to reduce waste generation, process waste at source and reduce waste sent to landfills.
However, in 2021-22, only 46% of the total waste generated was processed in MCD facilities. Moreover, the waste sent to MCD landfills increased from 51% in 2019-20 to 54% in 2021-22. To achieve the target of clearing all landfill sites by December 2024, MCD should focus on reducing amount of fresh waste sent to landfill and explore decentralised methods of waste management.” added Mhaske.
Yamuna River is highly polluted due to the large amounts of untreated waste released through municipal sewage and various other industrial wastes let out.
