Nagpur ragpickers out, machines in

TWO months ago, a fleet of hydraulic trucks of a private company started collecting garbage from homes in many areas of Nagpur. The trucks transport the garbage directly to the landfill site managed by another private company. This privatization of garbage collection has alarmed some 5,000 ragpickers who earn their living by rummaging through the city's bins and dump yards. They are likely to lose income. The new garbage management system,

Toilet training

Pundamental change

It seems a witty little word play, and international non-profits Wherever the Need and Skadaddle Media are really having fun with it. But they are also using Twitter to call attention to the importance of sanitation and to raise money to build eco-sanitation toilets for developing countries. The programme calls for people to tweet their friends on the networking site and ask them to donate to the cause. The people tweet on its behalf are called Daily Dumpers.

Update

BARC to help deal with waste

Contract killers

Deonar Dump To close

The Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation's plan to close down the Deonar waste dumping site has been shot down by the civic body's elected members. They found the plan, with a price tag of Rs 5,500 crore, too expensive. "On May 25, the standing committee asked us to call for fresh bids. We should be able to float fresh tenders within three months," said Ahmed Karim who heads the corporation's sanitation department. The civic body is going ahead with construction of a wall around the dumping site.

Science & Technology - Briefs

evolution Link...or is it? A well-preserved fossil of primitive lemur Darwinius masilla, nicknamed Ida is believed to represent the point from which the group of monkeys, apes and humans (anthropoids) evolved. The fossil lacks the traits which characterize a modern lemur, a non-human primate. Instead it

People do pay for latrines

Four decades ago, when Bindeshwar Pathak began his work on changing unsanitary latrine practices, there were sceptics galore. Today, Pathak's organization Sulabh International is a brand name. The recipient of the 2009 Stockholm Water Prize talks to Bharat Lal Seth on his organization's work ethics. Excerpts: On Sulabh's success story Interviewee:  Bindeshwar Pathak

Loo and behold

Villages near Tiruchirapalli show the city how to manage sewage--and benefit from it

According to Report

beaches Littered: Litter dumped on UK beaches has more than doubled in the past 15 years, a study said. The Marine Conservation Society's survey found an average of 2,195 items of trash per kilometre of beach which puts seabirds, turtles and whales at risk. The society has launched an online petition asking ministers to launch a plan to cut beach litter by 50 per cent by 2015. Dhaka's polluted air: At least 15,000 premature deaths and several million cases of pulmonary, respiratory