Understanding Waste Management
Kerala is witnessing an unprecedented and rapid increase in its urban population, with urbanization at 47.7% in 2011, marking an 83.2% surge from the previous decade. It is projected that this has gone up much further in the following decade. The state exhibits a unique settlement pattern characterized by an urban-rural continuum, with population evenly distributed across the region. According to the State Urbanization Report, future urban areas are expected to become more compact, with projections indicating that by 2036, 96% of the state will be urbanized. With a peri urban topography that permeates the State including excellent road and internet connectivity, as well as with robust and widespread socio economic development, the State’s high level of consumption has brought with it attendant problems of waste management, both liquid and solid, necessitating systematic planning and execution.
Kerala was the first major state to become Open Defecation Free (ODF), and the second in the country after Sikkim. While bio waste has tended to be managed within homesteads, non bio waste which is predominantly plastic waste had been making its way into public places or being burnt, before the ramifications of these practices and the Solid Waste Management rules 2016 under the Central Environment Protection Act of 1986 brought home the need for systemic management of waste, both municipal and rural.
Local governments, both urban and rural, bear a large part of the mandate for ensuring waste management, as ensuing from the Schedules of the Constitution as well as the Central Environment Protection Act, 2005 and the State Panchayati Raj and Municipal Acts. The challenges are manifold - new materials in construction, upholstery, electronic goods etc, changing societal behaviour, high urbanisation and widespread use of plastics and disposables, land constraints, technology limitations, climate change manifestations and the systemic inability by way of both resources and application to pay adequate attention to waste management and to enforce the regulatory framework. It is also seen that the more that waste is brought into the system, the greater the adaptation of the policy framework that is necessitated. It is an ever evolving paradigm. Global impact of inadequate waste management is manifest in our rivers and oceans, and is showing up on our beaches and in the food chain.
Rising affluence, consumerism and changing lifestyles especially post Covid, have seen waste generation increase manifold in recent times in Kerala. This has been posing a major challenge to the local governments. Compounded is the second generation leachate issues in liquid waste management and the contamination of water bodies and sources from liquid waste. The strategy for handling black and grey water has faced enormous resistance from communities calling for innovative and iconoclastic solutions, including addressing the severe land constraints.
The State has worked with a combination of decentralised and centralised approaches for handling the issue of waste management. The Nava Kerala Karma Paddhathi was launched in 2016, recognizing the need for decentralized waste management to address the state's unique geographical challenges and high population density. Local self-government bodies are entrusted with the full responsibility of waste management, with support from agencies such as the Suchitwa Mission, KILA, Kudumbashree, Clean Kerala Company ltd, Haritha Kerala Mission and KSWMP in urban areas under the Nava Kerala Karma Paddhathi. The Principal Director LSGD supervises the waste management activities of the LSGs.
The state published its state policy on solid waste management in terms of rule 11 and 15 of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary N0 2332 dated 13th September 2018. (Link to Doc). In 2020, the state also published its Integrated Solid Waste Management Strategy document, outlining a comprehensive framework to support local self-governments. (Link to Doc)
