Pune civic body doubles sweepers to 9,000, targets chronic garbage spots

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is working to strengthen the city's sanitation system. Its aim is to end the problem of garbage piling up repeatedly, improve collection in areas where the service is weak, and increase the processing of wet waste. The civic body has increased the number of garbage collection vehicles to 952 and doubled the staff engaged in sweeping roads from 4,500 to 9,000.

The enhanced deployment is part of a larger plan. The aim is for the city's waste management not to depend merely on daily cleanliness drives, but to function consistently. The administration is focusing on places where garbage heaps build up repeatedly. Door-to-door collection in slums will also be improved, and large waste generators will be asked to take greater responsibility for their garbage.

PMC Additional Commissioner Prajit Nair said the corporation wants to involve citizens, elected representatives and sanitation workers more actively in its cleanliness campaign, so that cleanliness improves in different areas.

Pune currently generates about 2,800 metric tonnes of waste a day, of which about 1,800 metric tonnes is dry waste and 1,000 metric tonnes is wet waste. The corporation has started a pilot project in which contractors collect the garbage. Officials are meanwhile working to fix the gaps in collection and transport.

The city's waste management chain has four main stages: collection, street sweeping, transport and processing. The corporation has already put processing arrangements in place. It is now working to improve the efficiency of collection and transport.

Under current rules, large housing societies and other bulk waste generators are expected to manage their own waste. However, about 2,800 such establishments in Pune together produce roughly 408 metric tonnes of waste a day. For this reason, the corporation is moving towards preparing a separate action plan for them.

The administration is also considering penalising establishments that do not follow waste management conditions. According to Nair, the proposed system is expected to come into force in the next two to two and a half months. The aim is that big waste producers do not depend entirely on the corporation's collection system and take responsibility for the waste generated on their premises.

PMC is also reviewing areas where garbage accumulates despite daily cleaning. Discussions with sanitation workers, supervisors and inspectors have brought out several causes, including fewer collection rounds and lapses in service at the local level. In some slums, there is little space near homes to keep garbage, so people leave it by the roadside. Elsewhere, garbage vehicles do not come often enough to prevent heaps from building up.

The wet waste processing capacity is currently about 600 metric tonnes a day, and PMC wants to increase it further. The plan includes a proposed facility with a capacity of 500 metric tonnes a day, in which, according to Nair, about 400 metric tonnes of wet waste can be processed. The additional capacity is meant to strengthen the city's ability to handle the biological share of its daily waste.

Alongside the changes in operations, the corporation is preparing a neighbourhood-level cleanliness competition ahead of the Pune Brand Tour at the end of January. Citizens, local representatives and corporation staff will take part. PMC hopes public participation will build better habits of waste disposal and sustain the improvement beyond daily cleaning.