SWM initiatives in ’s Jheurheri Village

The management of solid waste has become a major cause of concern over the past few years in both urban and rural areas. Swachh Bharat Mission aims for cleaner villages where everyone at their own level is taking some measures to make their surroundings clean. in its first phase of SBM has aimed at achieving ODF status and now is all geared up to move towards ODF plus.

Jheurheri village has accepted the challenge!

Jheurheri village is situated near the airport in Block Kharar of of Punjab. The present population of the village is 1200 with 230 households; mainly because of higher number of tenants residing in the same house the population has increased 16% since 2019. The village has planned to set up a Solid Waste Management Project to accelerate SBM (G) Phase II and contribute to effective waste management. In March 2020, the unit was setup with the help of panchayat’s fund and support of community members of the village. The plant is situated in the outskirts of the village in an area of approx. 4200 ft.sq. covered with ap shed. The waste management plant consists of 6 pits in a row with dimensions 12X5X4 ft respectively and depth of each pit is 4.5 ft. from the ground. The method of composting adopted is aerobic composting.

“I have been a resident of this village from past 21 years. I have a small shop and mostly kids come here to buy snacks and generally throw the wrapper around the area. Now I can see the situation is changing. I have kept one dustbin at the shop and another at my home mostly for collecting wet waste. Now, there is no littering around my shop and the waste is duly collected everyday which helps the area to remain clean. - Dilbag Kaur, Shopkeeper, Jheurheri village, Punjab

Journey from planning to action

After the plant was setup and well inaugurated through awareness and cleanliness drive, each household received a green and blue trash bin for ensuring effective segregation of waste. .A waste collector was appointed from the same village to collect waste from each household every day with a fixed monthly wage of Rs.40 from each household.

The task is to collect waste from each household on daily basis, further the waste is segregated as wet and dry waste from the trash bins and the wet waste is composted.

In the month of April, out of 230 households 95 households started using the trash bins and experimenting segregation of dry and wet waste from their houses. While others were still hesitant and ignorant about paying the waste collector and taking initiative to segregate waste properly. It takes more than 6 hours for the waste collector to collect the waste, segregate and then dispose it, observing hard work of the waste collector and her consistency and zeal towards her work Sarpanch Mandeep Kaur went with her to each household making people aware about the solid waste management system and importance of the managing it in our daily life. This is only possible if we as a community work together and sincerely towards sanitation.

Each blue and green trash bin has added value to waste management in the village. I earlier had no idea how waste can be so important in our daily life and difference between wet and dry waste was unknown to me. Happy to learn more about these issues and proud to say that my village was the first in the state to set up this plant in times of Covid 19 – Kulwinder Singh, Student, Jheurheri village, Punjab.

In October, a drastic shift took place not only in terms of support, but self-initiatives taken by village members to segregate the waste and help waste collector dump the wet waste. Children are also made aware about biodegradable and non- biodegradable waste as they watch their mother segregating waste once the food is prepared throwing the peels of vegetables or fruits in the green trash bins. Out of 230 households now 180 of them are regularly giving waste to waste collector and supporting her earn but few of villagers have also decided to increase their contribution to Rs.50 from January 2021.

I used to see toffee wrappers, milk packets and other dry waste around the corner and felt extremely worried about the condition of sanitation in the area. Initially when Round Glass Foundation came up and suggested to set up this plant, I was happy but worried that this will take ages to aware people in the village about using and segregating waste. But I am glad that it really worked as waste collector regularly came and collected the waste from the houses. The scheme will benefit us both economically and socially. - Mandeep Kaur, Sarpanch, Jheurheri village, Punjab

Creating the best out of waste

Out of the dry and wet waste collected, the dry waste is separated and cleaned so that it can be recycled further. In past 7 months the amount of use of plastic has decreased considerably. The wet waste is being sent to compost pits which will eventually over a period be organically converted to manure, which can be further sold into market increasing the income of gram panchayat. The dry waste as decided by the members will be sold in scrap market.

“Last month my relatives came to our house to stay with us, they complimented the cleanliness of the village. The waste management unit is a particularly good initiative to get the area cleaned and gain benefits out of it. The waste collector has also got her source of earning and sincerely does her work. I have also spread the word to my relatives to talk to their respective panchayats and get this project initiated in their own village” - Charanjeet Kaur, Housewife, Jheurheri village, Punjab.