With GHMC short of manpower, how should the civic body solve sanitation woes in Secunderabad?

Secunderabad: With people indiscriminately dumping garbage, TOI asked readers what can be done to bring about a change and ensure successful waste management
People should be educated about the importance of proper disposal of garbage and household waste, including furniture and other things. Many dustbins have been installed for both dry and wet waste, but nobody seems to be using these bins properly.One can find these bins either empty or broken. People should be fined for throwing garbage wherever they like. At vulnerable points, CCTV cameras should be installed and those caught littering must be fined. That’s one of the ways to create awareness on the issue. Local welfare groups should take up these social and civic issues, as GHMC is not able to cope up with this work due to lack of manpower. Welfare groups should take up cleaning work once every fortnight. The areas that they have cleaned can be used for common parking or to develop a garden. Unless residents cooperate, sanitation won’t improve. Also, many people don’t bother to clear debris even in front of their houses, thereby letting it rot. If all people keep their houses clean and throw garbage at spots earmarked for trash, then the residential areas won’t have any sanitation issues. The government alone can’t solve the problem unless people cooperate. — G Vijay Kumar
Even though there is shortage of manpower in GHMC, the civic body can solve sanitation issues by involving apartment associations, owners’ associations and colony associations in recycling garbage. The civic body needs to make sure that owners of vacant plots maintain their properties. To ensure that people don’t litter on such vacant plots, the associations must increase vigilance by appointing people to keep a watch, at least on a contract basis. More awareness needs to be created by citing the example of residents in Sainikpuri who cleaned garbage in their area a couple of days ago. Also, strict penalty must be imposed on those dumping garbage in the open. —Nagarjuna Srinivasa Rao Yenamandra
Apathy by GHMC officials is responsible for poor sanitation in the city. In addition to that poor monitoring and improper distribution of manpower is adding to the mess. As a result, garbage from roadside eateries, shops and many households is carelessly dumped on the corners of roads and at every empty space available. Even empty spaces fenced on all sides are not spared and turned into dumpyards. To keep the city neat and tidy, GHMC should identity the manpower requirement in each area and, accordingly, fill up the posts without delay, so that the task of lifting garbage from each colony by vans is done daily. This apart, periodic cleaning of drains need to be undertaken to prevent overflowing of sewage and contamination of drinking water. Further, the civic body must place CCTV cameras at all vulnerable points on the roads to identify those dumping garbage indiscriminately. Through media, GHMC should create awareness on sanitation issues and the disastrous consequences on people. The civic body should set an example by removing garbage daily and undertaking periodic cleaning of storm water drains. Also, civic officials must ensure that people don’t suffer under any circumstances just because there are a few logistic problems. — KR Srinivasan
Since residents are aware that GHMC is going through a staff crunch, especially sanitation workers, they should step up and make sure that they don’t dump garbage on the roadsides. People should also not dump anything through their wash basins and bathroom outlets that could choke the drainage pipes and ultimately the main sewer system. We should educate ourselves, our kids and our daily help at office and home to do the same and tell them to throw any type of trash — wet or dry — in earmarked dustbins only. The civic body should have a dedicated system to collect trash on specific days of the week, so that people are aware of those days in their areas and throw their trash in the bins before the collection vans reaches their areas. Just fining people isn’t enough. The need of the hour is to educate each citizen about the importance of dumping trash properly, cleanliness and sanitation. The citizens and GHMC, hand-in-hand, can do wonders despite staff crunch. — Deepesh Surana
In the twin cities, the population density has increased and become almost double in the last 25 years, but the drainage pipelines are still the same. To add to the mess, the number of illegal constructions has increased manifold over the years, causing drains to overflow and leading to excess dumping of trash. We see too many street food eateries occupying pavements. The waste from these eateries is dumped on the roadsides. Nobody questions the people running these eateries for reasons best known to them. Then there is the problem of poor quality of roads. Just one spell of rainfall is enough to flood these roads and wash away the tall claims made by the civic officials. Apartn from this, stagnant water in open drains provide the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos. In the absence of regular fogging, vector-borne diseases are on the rise. — T Kailash Ditya