June 5th which is celebrated as the World Environment Day every year encourages communities to take action towards environmental protection. This day also helps advocacy for policy changes at local, national and international level. As an environmental campaigner, I personally believe that World Environment Day celebrations are mere formalities for Government. Non-Governmental Organisations and educational institutions. On this day, seminars, workshops and rallies are organised and some tree plantation is done and the very next day the same people who attended such programmes violate environmental laws themselves. Let us introspect. How many among us segregate waste in our own houses and how many of us make minimal use of plastic?
Planting trees around World Environment Day (WED) programmes which continues for a week is a fad and I see all this as a mockery of the true spirit of environmental consciousness. Does anyone make resolutions, are there any goals, is there any responsibility? Do we come back to these after a year? No.
Every year on June 5th, a distinct theme is chosen to celebrate the world environment day. We discuss and deliberate on the issues of climate change, global warming, and deforestation during seminars, conferences and rallies on this day and the very next day the same participants and speakers mix all their plastic and kitchen waste in their trash bin which is then disposed unscientifically. If the World Environment Day programme doesn’t make us even undertake waste segregation at household level and doesn’t even inspire us to compost our kitchen waste within the premise of our houses, what is the fun to participate and speak during the WED programmes? Isn’t all this a mockery when we don’t even implement the basics of the Municipal Solid Waste Rules 2016 wherein biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste isn’t supposed to be mixed together?
Kashmir is a massive wetland
This year, the theme of World Environment Day is “Land restoration, Desertification and Drought resilience.” According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40% of our planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population. The number and duration of droughts has increased by 29 per cent since 2000 – without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050. The droughts and land degradation aren’t a major challenge for Kashmir valley because we face different environmental challenges.
As we see and read that the water table across India and other South Asian countries is receding and bore wells and other underground water sources are drying up, this is opposite in Kashmir valley. Our water table is increasing in most of the places except near the river banks and streams where unregulated riverbed mining is done. Srinagar and many areas across Kashmir valley get flooded within hours of rainfall and this is because of unregulated developmental activities, urbanisation and earth-filling done for creating new highways, railway lines, developing residential colonies etc. Kashmir valley was a massive lake millions of years back and it will again become a lake in next few centuries. The water channels, streams, irrigation canals, wetlands, ponds, lakes have been choked and encroached upon. Natural seepage of water has been halted. The constant dumping of plastic waste in our water bodies and drainage system has further made this challenging and that is the reason we see massive water logging on roads in Srinagar and other towns.
The large-scale earth filling on the Srinagar Ring Road project from Galandar Pampore to Narbal has choked the Jhelum flood basin from Gallandar Kandizal to Khanda Suthsoo. The wetlands around Soibugh , Dharmuna area are also impacted by this road project and this will be disastrous in coming years .
Unscientific waste dumping in Srinagar
As I said, the entire Kashmir valley is a wetland and finding enough degraded and arid land in this valley is a challenging task. The only safer places to create landfill sites in Kashmir valley are Karewas but due to small agricultural land holdings and higher population density we can’t even afford to have landfill sites on Karewas. This is more challenging for setting up landfill sites in Budgam district as we have an airport located in the area. As per MSW Rules 2016 and other guidelines of the Civil Aviation Ministry, the airport or air-force base should be at least 10 kms away from landfill site. This means no major landfill site can be set up in any part of Budgam.
The Srinagar district has failed to acquire even 10 hectares of degraded waste land and that is the reason waste is being constantly dumped at Achan Saidpora near EidGah Srinagar for the last 35 years. This area has been a wetland and large-scale paddy farming was done in this area until 15 to 20 years back. This author has written extensively on this issue and filed several video report as well in my weekly programme Inkishaf.
NGTs intervention
This author finally filed a fresh application before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last month and the three member NGT bench has constituted a committee headed by Member Secretary Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to ascertain the “correct factual situation” around Saidpora Achan garbage dumping site which is used by Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
The residents of Saidapora Achan, Wanganpora, Eid Gah, Merjanpora, Anchar , Soura and many other localities in the downtown Srinagar, have complained about the “unscientific” dumping of waste in Achan Saidapora area which is actually a wetland. This unscientific garbage dumping is causing persistent foul smell emanating from the site, causing several health issues. There is also constant oozing of leachate from this unscientific landfill site which has impacted local agricultural and other livelihood activities of the locals. The Srinagar city generates around 600 metric tons of garbage, which is collected by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and dumped at Achan Saidapora in violation of MSW Rules 2016 and Wetland Conservation and Management Rules 2017.
The NGT three-member bench headed by Justice Prakash Srivastava in its order has constituted a committee which comprises of representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the National Wetland Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), the Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar, and the Member Secretary of the J&K Pollution Control Committee (JKPCC). The Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar will serve as the nodal agency for this committee. The job of this committee is to ascertain the correct ground position and the extent of pollution caused by the illegal dumping at the landfill site in question, consequential health hazard created by it. The National Green Tribunal -NGT in its May 15th 2024 order also directed the committee to suggest remedial measures including setting up of waste processing facilities to zero down landfill and submit the report before the Tribunal within eight weeks.
Conclusion
As we often say, Charity begins at home. I believe the best way to celebrate the world environment day is to start treating our kitchen waste in our kitchen gardens by digging a small pit to process it on a daily basis. Managing waste by Urban Local Bodies or Municipal institutions is a challenging task in Kashmir valley due to our unique topography and limited waste lands to set up new landfill sites. The best way to celebrate World Environment Day is to make some commitments on this day, like carrying a cloth or jute bag for shopping, not mixing wet and dry waste in trash bins, home composting of kitchen waste and minimizing use of plastic products during our weddings. Let us give our feedback on how much committed we have been for a year and share our experiences the next year on June 5th. Let us start working from our own homes.
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
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