Waste

The cleanest cities of India: Karad’s successful management and destigmatising sanitary waste

Effective collaboration between agencies and shared responsibilities has been the USP for Karad’s success

 
By DTE Staff
Published: Friday 04 February 2022

Over 12.3 billion disposable sanitary pads are generated every year in India. That’s an average of 35 million pads per day.

Forget about processing this waste, almost 50 per cent is not even getting collected. According to data on menstrual waste management from the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, 28 per cent of such pads are thrown in the open and 15 per cent are burnt openly.

But a small city in Satara district of Maharashtra has become a role model of sanitary waste management for the entire country. In Karad, 100 per cent sanitary waste and biomedical waste is segregated, collected and processed separately.

This is easier said than done. Especially in a country where the topic of sanitary waste carries social stigma.

Situated on the confluence of the Krishna and Koyna rivers, Karad always had a rich legacy when it comes to waste management practices. Towards the late 90s, the rise in the percentage of plastic and unsegregated collection of waste turned the city’s processing site into a landfill.

Karad was also slowly turning into a medical hub which, in turn, generated biomedical waste. The unsegregated household waste got mixed with biomedical waste, creating all sorts of problems for the municipality.

But Karad wasn’t willing to drag its proud legacy to its drains. And so, the authorities along with the people of Karad, decided to get their city back on track.

Despite being a small city, the Karad Municipal Council (KMC), along with the hospital association, formed a unique biomedical waste processing facility with a capacity of 30 kilograms per hour.

Sanitary waste segregation was always a challenge in India due to the taboo associated with it. Karad was no different. A good percentage of the sanitary waste ended up clogging the city’s drains and public places.

The municipal council also encouraged schools to set up sanitary pad dispensary machines and sanitary waste disposal systems.

After a two-month-long exercise,100 per cent of households in Karad started giving sanitary waste separately for collection. The administration then made an agreement with the biomedical waste treatment facility at Kharad colony, to process the sanitary waste without any additional cost to the KMC.

Today, Karad has ended up being a flag-bearer of sanitary and biowaste management in India. The city also has reclaimed the landfill plot by cleaning around 59,000 tonnes of legacy waste using methods like biomining.

Authorities in Karad are planning to make their waste management systems better with modern technologies. Effective collaboration between agencies and shared responsibilities has indeed been the USP for Karad’s success, with the people and KMC working in synergy. This has resulted in creating a city they can proudly call clean.

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