Smart Swachha Mangaluru

Mangaluru is a city that is rapidly growing and developing in multi directions. The city hosts large number of people including students and entrepreneurs from different parts of the country. This accelerated growth of the city calls for our attention to problems of pollution, sanitation and waste management. There are negative environmental impacts of growing landfills and open burning of waste such as increase in air and water pollution. These issues are to be dealt with before they endanger the wellbeing of the city and its people. A well executed and a sustainable plan to solve these can make the city radiate with beauty and harmony.

Smart Swachh Mangaluru is a programme to achieve segregation at source, a keystone in enabling success of Mangaluru’s ISWM system. SSM integrates a conversion strategy along with APD’s ongoing city-wide IEC campaign to influence behavior change. The program comprises of a set of targeted campaigns, seminars, workshops and training programmes to infuse the minds of city dwellers with the Smart Swachh Mangaluru dream. The principle objectives of SSM is to lay out a road map for waste generators in order to achieve zero – waste practices, and capacity building for waste workers, waste auditing, public sensitization and consultation of issues at stake, current constraints and exploring other avenues.

APD received the IYF Award for SSM from the UN-Habitat & Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation Mumbai for its social innovation

Smart Swachh Mangaluru program envisages not only focus on public education and broadcasting but takes an integrated approach to ensure sustained conversion, with ULB (MCC), the waste Contractor (AWHCPL) and a city NGO (APD) working in close partnership with generators. In order to achieve this SSM will ensure multiple exposures that embed the concept of segregation and help gain public support for the initiatives by authorities. Realizing that words alone can’t help, SSM requires community participation and action to ensure targeted conversion of generators to practice segregation at source. In the 1st year, 10 generators (50% of city’s waste) will be actively engaged with to start segregation. Notifications from the ULB and toolkits including guidance documents for planning, self-audit forms, monitoring and reporting will help to execute and ensure the goals. Improvement in working conditions and treatment of waste workers as well as improvement in handing over of waste from generator will be assessed using feedback from waste workers. SSM will also monitor and aid segregated waste collection and transportation by the city’s waste contractor. Data collected for baselining and measuring progress towards achieving targets will also be analysed for monitoring and future planning. The program expects to reduce the city’s waste to the landfill and number of open dumping sites, and an increase in value of waste through recycling, reusing and composting. Most of the critical issues stem from social and cultural practices embedded in our society and tackling them requires behaviour change. Youth of the city are seen here as key drivers of this change and advocates for a cleaner, healthier environment.