Monday, 08 November 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The increasing use of single-use plastics in Dehradun continues to cause several problems from garbage accumulation on several roadside areas to severely affecting the health of humans and stray cows. While the overflowing trash bins in some areas lead to the accumulation of roadside garbage, the lack of such bins also caused such issues in various localities. Anil Kohli, a local resident of Bhagat Singh Colony said, “The lack of right management of garbage by the authorities concerned is the main reason for this menace. The door to door garbage collection service is not regular in our area. The trash from the bins placed on the side of the road is also not picked up regularly. We have complained to the councillor as well as the MCD officials about these issues several times but nothing happens.
This is not the issue of only our ward but almost all the big wards of the city are going through this situation.” A similar situation can be observed on the roadside of several areas like Balbir Road, Sahastradhara Road, Raipur Road and Canal Road among others. A shopkeeper on Balbir Road, who does not wish to be named, said, “This place hardly remains clean only for a couple of hours a week when sanitation workers pick up the trash and clean the space. Rag pickers spread the garbage all over the place in search of scraps to sell. Sometimes, the sanitation workers deliberately dump the garbage on the ground rather than dumping it inside the bins. The overflowing garbage bins were already an issue here but the situation has worsened this year.” Responding to such issues, MA Saify, the project head of Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (REEL) that manages waste management in 69 wards, said that the company regularly picks up garbage from all the roadside bins of the assigned wards. He said, “There might be some areas where the situation is not ideal as the locals keep throwing garbage in open areas despite the bins available there. We are working on improving this situation and things will get better soon.” However, he added, the MCD should ensure that the sanitation workers employed by them must dispose of the garbage in the bins only.
The MCD officials also said that the increasing use of plastic and its littering by locals has increased roadside waste accumulation in various localities. “We are working on minimising the usage of single-use plastic through the anti-plastic campaign besides making our door to door service more efficient but the public also needs to act as a responsible citizen. One must immediately complain of any sanitation issue in their respective areas in MCD to improve sanitation conditions here,” said the municipal health officer, Dr Kailash Joshi.
