In Delhi, no waste segregation at household level puts sanitation workers at risk
1/5
Shifting focus
According to a report by TNN, before the pandemic, sanitation workers had been advised to carefully sift through municipal solid waste and avoid items like sanitary napkins, diapers and electronic waste that had been dumped alongside regular household garbage. These days, the focus has shifted to avoiding masks, gloves, face shields and PPE kits.
2/5
Risky business
While Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines mandate that biomedical waste must be segregated, shredded and left for disposal after 72 hours, there seems to be no improvement in segregation of waste at the household level. The rising quantum of biomedical waste is not only leading to their accumulation at landfill sites, but also putting sanitation workers at risk, experts say.
3/5
Massive increase
Data provided by NCR states to EPCA recently showed an increase in Covid-19 waste by 14 times in July compared with what was generated in Delhi in April. While the capital generated 25 tonnes of such waste in April, it increased to 372 tonnes in June and 349 tonnes in July, a report submitted by EPCA to the Supreme Court stated.
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4/5
Missing segregation
Chitra Mukherjee, head of advocacy and policy at Chintan, a Delhi-based waste management NGO, said the risk to sanitation workers had gone up manifold during the pandemic and no progress had been made over the past couple of months to ensure CPCB's guidelines were enforced.
5/5
Ground-level change
An official said hundreds of notices had been issued to RWAs for failure to segregate household waste and model wards had been selected to enforce segregation in a phased manner. "We face resistance with people arguing that they are unaware of the rules. The bylaws have been notified and should be taken seriously. People do not argue after breaking traffic rules by saying they didn't know such rules existed. We cannot achieve waste segregation if people refuse to cooperate," he added.