Garbage, Silent Killer of the City!

 

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“If you have garbage in your head, house cleaners won't help you.” ― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“The scale of the mess we leave behind is proportionate to the level of respect we have for others.” ― Stewart Stafford

“What we do with our garbage is decides what we are within” --- Me

I am sure the quotes of Kuzgov & Stafford & my conclusion from them gives you a fair idea about the subject rather than the object of sharing & if you are (read as still you are) reading newspapers & keep track of what’s happening around us, apart from Iran-USA war & football world cup! It's about garbage or say litter (in Hindis, Kuda/Kachra) & reason is, we all know garbage is hazardous to our health but this time the garbage thingy actually killed humans by engulfing them just the way raging ocean or river or fire swallows whatever comes in its way! And if after such a tragic incident we still close our eyes & ears (and nose too) towards it then today it's some eight people from poor background (read as financially) who were the victim of garbage the tomorrow our entire city will be the victim, is the reason for my sharing!  We all dislike garbage & to such an extent that we throw everything labelled as garbage from our eyesight’s jurisdiction & that's a popular concept of our cleanliness (read as most Indians)! I come across many women (and men too) who are fussy about their love for cleanliness & nothing wrong about it but when I ask them where they put away all the litter (garbage) or say unwanted things which are of no use, then the answer is, they throw it in dust bin or dump on “potmala” (loft) & in some cases they give away which is useless to them! Means we can categorize our home garbage in mostly three categories, one is we really think this is of no use & throw it in our dust bins, second is, we think right now its of no use but some day it may be useful & we keep it out of our sight & dump on loft & third is (though it’s a small quantity) things which we think someone can use, such as used good quality clothes or shoes or utensils etc & we give it to needy people ( I am deliberately not mentioning the category of these people out of respect for their trades)! But one thing is common, we want to get rid of all these things from our immediate surroundings & pushing them away is the only solution we usually have for garbage!

On all such backgrounds, there was a tragic incident (I won’t call it an accident) in PCMC /Pune region where at a garbage depot site tons of garbage fell on an administrative building nearby of the garbage treatment plant & nearly twenty plus staff got trapped inside. With a rescue operation which went for nearly three days, eleven people were rescued but nine people lost their lives. I can imagine the tragic death if it's not sudden, trapped under building material & with the entire air around is full of foul smell & sustained injuries due to falling debris, this type of death is the worst for sure, though any untimely death is bad which was the case with these people! I am not judging nor I am an authority about the legality of the said building or whose fault it was etc but one thing is sure such things as an engineer I can’t call it as accident because an accident is something which happens even when you have taken all sorts of precautions & a garbage heap falling on a building causing its collapse & reason for death, certainly doesn’t come under the accident category! As usual there will be an inquiry committee & suspension of authorities & police will file FIR etc, the usual drama will follow, point is, who is the actual culprit behind this garbage mishap & what are we going to do about it, is my subject of sharing!

Before I move ahead, one question (those who have patience to read plz reply), how many of you know what is a garbage depot & how many of you have visited one such from inside? If you want to know my answer, garbage depot is a dedicated piece of land where garbage of entire or part of the city is collected & yes, I have visited more than once garbage depot for Pune city which earlier was at Paud Road Kothrud & the one at Fursungi, eastern suburb of Pune. And trust me, though the visit lasted for less than an hour the smell remained in my lungs (more in my head) for many more hours & the visuals remained with me still even after years, such is the dread of the place! Now imagine people who work here for their livelihood & died because of it, have we ever thought from where all this garbage comes from & it includes things right from used clothes to blood-soaked bandages to rotten food & even dead bodies of domestic animals & a lot more which I can’t even describe! And humans work here to process this garbage which is generated by each of us just because we want our surroundings to be clean, we dump it somewhere & from that somewhere it ends at the garbage depot. Do we know how much garbage is generated everyday in Pune city alone, well it's nearly 2300 tons per day & this too is collected one, while nearly half of it doesn’t even get collected means nearly 3000 tons, we produce garbage every day! However bad the garbage scene is at garbage depot, at least it’s being collected at one place but the garbage which doesn’t reach to such depot is more dangerous as either its being burned polluting air we breathe or it finds its way to our natural resources such as streams or hills or open areas polluting them or infrastructure such as storm water lines, clogging them! This is why there are no more fresh water streams in Pune but only nallahs or say open gutters & most of our open lands are covered with thrash which has been created by the humans living in its neighbourhood only! And do mind except humans no other species create garbage on this earth so we alone are responsible for the right disposal of the mess we are creating & have created, we can’t shift our this responsibility (read as sin) on anybody else! Those who call  tree's leaves falling on ground as garbage, they are ignorant fools as it's part of nature’s cycle & we have removed earth cover by concrete, that’s why these leaves can’t get converted organic fertilizers by getting mixed with the soil & we conveniently tag it as garbage!

Now coming to the main aspect, what can I do about it? Because, it's easy to blame others but difficult to come ahead & take responsibility, which is the need of the time if we want the garbage named killer to be in control, is my subject of sharing! Well, first & foremost chalk down your daily routine & make a checklist of things which generates garbage, right from you ordering anything on the online trade portals which creates maximum garbage for packaging to your home keeping habits, write down every single thing as unless you don’t document generation fronts you won’t be able to control it, is simple fact. And then minimise ordering online or try to order all your need based things in one go, as three orders means three packages’ means three-time garbage, this may sound funny or extreme but that’s fact! I, on a personal front, never like online shopping & agreed not everybody can live like me but at least you can improve your shopping habits, right? Then comes ordering of food, which is another garbage generation via its packaging & via leftover as in hotel you don’t have to pack food but get served in open plate as well the left over is collectively disposed of or even used to feed street living people (beggars, I won’t use the term)! So, try ordering as little food as you can, this will also make you eat home made food, a good byproduct for your health(lol)! At the same time at work level also just see that, how you can use every piece of paper to its fullest & segregate properly whatever is really labelled as garbage & think recycling / reuse whatever you can!. Most importantly, see that finally what you are throwing as garbage must be minimum in quantity & goes in the right hands for further treatment!

On city level, though govt knows everything yet doesn’t do anything as there is no quantification of how many societies have got a segregation system of dry & wet garbage & how much wet garbage is treated at local level, which is supposedly mandatory for all new buildings! At the same time taking strict actions against societies & citizens who are not following norms & creating or say disposing garbage in the wrong way, this is something always sidelined by the civic bodies for the obvious reason of not making the vote bank angry! Creating strong awareness among school kids via presentations can be an effective way. At the same time, we can conduct not just "Clean Society' or 'Clean School" competitions but "Zero Garbage Society" or "Zero Garbage School" & promote the importance of reduction in generation of garbage & treating it in the right way at source! Last but least the govt (read as all political leaders & policy makers) stop pleasing your voters by accepting their wrong demands as some ten years back a garbage depot reservation was cancelled from Punavale suburb of PCMC resulting the present Moshi garbage depot site getting overloaded with garbage which is main reason for the mishap! Today all those so-called leaders & activists shouting against the mishap were either silent or vouched for cancelling the garbage depot reservation because nobody wanted to make the respective vote bank unhappy & that’s why we all are guilty for the death of those nine lives! And this is not the case or situation of so-called big cities, you travel on State or National highways & before & after in small villages you will see small piles of garbage all along the road on both sides as these villages or towns doesn’t have any means to treat or dispose their garbage & the generation is on all the time, with govt turning blind eye towards this sad byproduct of our so-called development or urbanization! Special mention to Adar Poonawala foundation which is generously helping with machinery & manpower to fight the garbage problem for the city & more companies, organizations must come forward to join hands, is what I want to share!

Guys, Moshi garbage depot mishap is silent warning from the silent killer named garbage & today it's just one building which got hit by the garbage mountain tomorrow it will be entire city which will be swallowed by the garbage & that day we alone will be at blame for ignoring this silent warning from the silent killer, adios with this note!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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