As a part of the CapaCITIES project supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), ICLEI South Asia along with other partners initiated source segregation of waste in two wards (Wards No. 1 and Ward No 41) in Udaipur city.

In a bid to improve the existing municipal solid waste management practices in the city, Udaipur Municipal Corporation (UMC) aims to introduce and institutionalise the process of collection and transportation of segregated waste in the city to meet the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and also the larger goals of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

With the objective to support the city in its larger objective of sustainable waste management, with focus on reduction of GHG emissions from waste disposal, the CapaCITIES team along with the health department of UMC, initiated segregation practices in two wards on a pilot scale.

The two wards with approximately 3500 households and commercial entities have been chosen in discussion with the Udaipur Municipal Corporation. These two wards represent different economic sections of the city with Ward 1 being densely populated, having an uneven terrain and comprising primarily of lower and mid-income groups. Ward 41, on the other hand, represents a well-planned residential area populated with a higher-income group. As a first step towards the initiative, ICLEI South Asia had conducted recce and preliminary discussion with citizens regarding the existing waste management practices in their areas. A quantification and characterisation study of the two wards followed, to assess the quantity of waste being generated and the composition of waste.

Realising that segregation is the key to any successful waste processing and disposal practices, the project team decided to discuss, sensitise and raise awareness of the public towards segregation. Under the project, three women from local Self Help Groups (SHGs) were hired as ‘Swachta Sewak’, trained and capacitated to motivate citizens to practice segregation at household level. Intense dialogues with citizens and one-on-one meetings with the public in the two wards promoting source segregation were conducted last month. Along with citizens, sanitary staff deployed in the two wards were also trained and sensitised. The continuous awareness campaigns and sensitisation practices motivated citizens and led to more than 70% of households in the two wards segregating waste into two categories i.e wet (primarily kitchen waste) and dry (recyclables and other non-biodegradable waste). Further measures are being taken to collect and transport waste separately by sanitary staff of the city. The ‘Swachta Sewaks’ are on the field daily, monitoring waste collection, to ensure that waste is not mixed during transportation.

Encouraged by the positive response and success of the initiative in Ward 1 and 41, Udaipur Municipal Corporation has scaled up this initiative to 15 more wards under the guidance of ICLEI South Asia.

ICLEI South Asia provided training to all the sanitary inspectors, sanitary workers, cleaning staff and SHG women of the Corporation, and capacitated them further thereby enabling them to initiate segregation practices in other wards.

40 ladies from various SHGs were selected as ‘Swachata Sevak’ and were given trainings thereby creating resources who are well-capacitated to scale up the initiative to the entire city with increased efficiency.

A Swachh Bharat Mission team has been constituted in the city which includes Health Officer, Sanitary Inspectors, Garage In-charge, National Urban Livelihood Mission In-charge, Environment Engineer and ICLEI South Asia officials for implementation and monitoring of the source segregation initiative in all 17 wards. The route map of door to door waste collection in Ward 1 and 41 has also been prepared to improve the efficiency in transportation of solid waste.

In the last week of September, bins for separate storage of dry and wet waste were distributed to citizens in Ward 1. The bins were distributed in the presence of District Collector and the Ward Councilor during the ‘Ratri Choupal’ event organised in Ward 1. The distribution of bins continued throughout the week of 2nd of October, thereby marking the third anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission. Distribution of bins has been completed in Ward 1 with almost 1900 households receiving two bins for segregating and storing wet and dry waste. Distribution of bins in Ward 41 will follow shortly. 

A rally has also been organised in some of the wards of the city in order to continue the momentum and enthusiasm of public participating actively in moving towards zero waste.