Prof. Sadhan Kumar Ghosh is a prominent figure in the fields of waste management, circular economy, SME sustainability, green manufacturing, green factories, and total quality management. He is the founder and Chairman of the International Conference on Sustainable Waste Management towards Circular Economy and President of the International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water, as well as the Chairman of the Indian Congress on Quality, Environment, Energy and Safety Management Systems.
From 2014 to 2019, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), a nation-wide campaign to ensure hygiene, waste management and sanitation in India has been carried out by the government initiative. What is your overall evaluation of SBM?
In my opinion, Swachh Bharat Mission is an outstanding achievement particularly in the objective for providing safe sanitary facilities to people who otherwise did not to have one, but challenges remain. Stepping into its fourth year, the SBM has achieved significant milestones in both the rural and urban front, though it will take more than five years to achieve and sustain cleanliness across the country. The Swachh Survekshan (SS) 2019 has impacted nearly 0.4 billion citizens encompassing 4,237 cities, making this the biggest survey ever internationally. Swachh Survekshan has brought a revolutionary change in sanitary facilities as well as waste management in India.
The mission attracted the attention of the whole nation with a special commitment as it was called for the cleanliness and sanitation by the Honorable Prime Minister of India which had never happened. It has two sub-missions – the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin and the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban. SBM had multiple objectives, and to date many of them have been achieved. The primary goal behind this mission is to provide sanitation facilities to every family, including toilets and liquid waste disposal systems, to promote overall village cleanliness, to supply of safe and adequate drinking water, IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) and effective solid waste management. Across rural India, sanitation coverage stands at 93%. With 38.70% rural sanitation coverage in 2014 before the SBM began, India had one of the highest number of people in the world defecating in the open (0.53 billion). In the last four years of the mission, the number of people defecating in the open has come down to 0.25 billion, as per a survey conducted by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation earlier in 2019. Some of the largest states in India, namely, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, have managed to declare their rural areas open defecation free (ODF). Over 0.45 million villages and 453 districts have also become ODF, signaling progress on the mission’s rural front. As the SBM enters its final year, rural areas of 16 out of 28 states are presently ODF.
The updated achievement in the mission are : 101,190,768 household toilets constructed, 599,963 ODF villages, 699 ODF Districts, 35 ODF States/UT, 63.3% of Rural Population practicing SLWM (ODF plus) (Source NARSS 2018-19, ). Toilets in schools will definitely reduce the female drop outs. The medical expenses as well as sickness of the children will reduce drastically in the villages due to ODF and incorporation of huge number of toilets.
Progress made on these objectives of SBM is overwhelming as 18% of people in their cities stated that the public toilet system has improved. 5 million household toilets have been constructed in the country. The Swachhtha app is used by millions of people for reviewing the progress. During Swachh Survekshan, Urban Local Bodies started providing PPE (personal protective equipment) and its use by workers during their work has increased nearly 100%.
Related Publication: Aich A, Ghosh S K (2017) "Conceptual Framework for Municipal Solid Waste Processing and Disposal System in India" in Waste Management and Resource Efficacy
What are the main technological challenges in urban areas when provisioning sanitary facilities?
Nearly 60 million people in urban areas lack access to improved sanitation arrangements, and more than two-thirds of wastewater is let out untreated into the environment, polluting land and water bodies including the marine environment. As per census data (2011), 13 % (10 million) of households resort to open defecation, and another 3 per cent or 1.8 million households have “unimproved” sanitation (unimproved pit latrines, removal of night soil by humans, animals or direct flow into drainage). The majority of the municipal solid waste (MSW) processing facilities have been created in India over a period of time at the initiative of both private and government sectors, but the success rates are not encouraging. To respond to these environmental and public health challenges, urban India will need to address the full cycle of sanitation, i.e. universal access to toilets, with safe collection, conveyance and treatment of human excreta and safe treatment and disposal of solid and liquid wastes.
The present condition has been improved a lot through the implementation of SBM.
Solid waste management and sanitation practices followed are not based on the field situation but are mostly driven by available technology. Selection of technology in turn, is dictated primarily by quantity of waste and availability of land. The focus was mainly on landfilling, dumping and disposal to water bodies rather than 3R and resource recovery. There is no definitive supply chain for appropriate feedstock waste to count for optimum operating level of the waste processing plants. Unsegregated waste followed by inadequate separation at plant site, is the main reasons, the plants cannot operate at optimum level. Very recently the implementation of SWM Rules 2016 and SBM encouraged the source segregation of waste and those are improving the sanitation conditions and resource recovery too.
The deficits in sanitation become more critical in the context of the absence of reliable, safe water in Indian cities. Nearly 60 % of urban households have access to public supplies of drinking water. Even households connected to the public supply system receive on average only three hours of drinking water supply a day, and an average of 75 liters per capita as opposed to the norm of 135. Most urban households in India depend on multiple sources – often separate sources for potable and non-potable uses.
While the recent attention to sanitation in both media and policy circles is a welcome step, there is an urgent need to expand attention to the whole wastewater cycle to achieve public health outcomes. This implies paying attention not only to wastewater conveyance and treatment, but also to less visible concerns like poor construction of on-site systems and lack of operations and maintenance. The main technical challenges in urban areas when provisioning sanitary facilities are undoubtedly the space constraints, especially in the slums.
The operation and maintenance (O&M) of the infrastructure facilities provided for sanitary facilities are some of the major issues and challenges in implementation of SBM. 100% connection to sewer lines where underground drainage (UGD) system is prevailing and treatment of wastewater leading to the use of treated water. Secondly, where there is no UGD system, fecal waste is to be treated in the plants. Not having a proper de-sludging system, heavy decanting costs and O&M are important issues to be addressed. Moreover, the fecal matter is mixed with drain water and storm water while discharged from the household septic tank that contaminates water bodies ultimately.
Are the factors particularly associated with the rural region, which may hinder the fast and wide improvement of the current sanitary situation, and what could be done to change those?
The change of habit of people is the most important factor that could result in fast and wide improvement of the current sanitary situation. However, probably the poor and unattractive construction of the sanitary facilities, scarcely available water to the facility, and lack of their timely maintenance in the projects under Swachh Bharat Mission are the major factors hindering the improvement of the current sanitary situation. The awareness level should be increased through live examples, creating role models within the villages, regular interaction and close monitoring at the beginning stage for a significant period on continuous basis will improve the efficacy and usefulness of the SBM programme within the rural region.
What are the best solutions for rural waste water management?
On-site low cost sanitation system. Rural wastewater management may not be very important in all rural areas, mainly because the source of wastewater is quite less and highly scattered. However, when there are certain rural areas discharging polluted wastewater that affect the nearby environment, even in agricultural fields, the best solution is to incorporate the adsorption techniques for removal of polluted contaminants using green natural adsorbents such as neem leaves, coconut coir, rice husk, guava tree bark, and so on. The best solutions are to provide sanitary waste treatment plants, for liquid effluents, solid waste treatment plants including collection and transportation are some of the facilities can reduce the environmental degradation.
What is your vision for the next step to be taken to change the current situation in India and in other areas facing similar issues?
The management and strengthening of solid and liquid waste, fecal sludge and ODF sustenance should be the main focus. The fundamental priority of all the SBM programmes is to follow a regular operational schedule and maintenance of executed infrastructure and sanitation facilities in rural areas. Most importantly the sustained use of the constructed toilets have to be closely monitored and encouraged, otherwise the effectiveness of the constructed infrastructure will be lost very soon.
As an immediate solution, the effluent should be prevented from polluting and contamination soil and water bodies. There should be separate systems for storm water and waste water. Household and gated community septic tanks should be looked into carefully and where possible be replaced by sewer lines and treatment. The challenge is that there are standard for wastewater treatment but no standardization for septic tanks for a definite size of gated communities for effectiveness.
Regular training and awareness programmes to identified people will enhance the success of the programme. Education and hands-on training is required from school level on-wards on the waste reduction, cleanliness and utilization of waste as resources. The existing EVS (Environment Science) education programme at school and college level in India should be strengthened.
Related Publication: Aich A, Ghosh S K "SWOT Analysis for Sustainability of Vermi Compost Plant for Processing of MSW: A Case Study" in International Journal for Basic Sciences and Social Sciences (IJBSS), Published by Research Foundation for Basic Sciences and Social Sciences (RFBSS)
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About Prof. Dr. Sadhan Kumar Ghosh:
Prof. Sadhan Kumar Ghosh (www.sadhankghosh.com), Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology and Professor and Former Head of the Mechanical Engineering and Founder Coordinator of the Centre for Quality Management System at Jadavpur University, India. A prominent figure in the fields of waste management, circular economy, SME sustainability, green manufacturing, green factories, and total quality managemen. He served as the Director of the Central Board for Workers Education, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, and L&T Ltd. Prof Ghosh is also the founder and Chairman of the International Conference on Sustainable Waste Management towards Circular Economy (IconSWM) and President of the International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water, as well as the Chairman of the Indian Congress on Quality, Environment, Energy and Safety Management Systems (ICQESMS).
He was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship 2012 by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, to work on “Energy Recovery from Municipal Solid Waste”. He received the Boston Pledge and NABC 2006 award at Houston, USA for the most eco-friendly innovation “Conversion of plastics & jute waste to wealth”. He holds Indian (2019) and Bangladesh (2014) patents on waste plastics processing technology and high-speed jute ribboning technology preventing water wastage and occupational hazards and Indian patent (2017) on Eco Friendly Plastics processing and Machine. He is a member of ISO Working Groups concerning waste management (ISO/TC 297). His projects have been funded by European Union Horizon 2020 (2018-2022) on waste water, Royal Academy of Engineering (2018-2020 and 2012) on Circular economy in SMEs, Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF), Georgia (2019-2021) on resource circulation from landfill, GCRF 2019/2020, UK on impact of well-being and mental health on productivity and sustainability in Industries, UNCRD/DESA as Expert (2016-2018) on SWM, Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) (2016-2019) on green manufacturing, & BoP Green Business, British Council & DST (2012-2014), Royal Society (2015), Erasmus Plus (2016-17), ISWMAW (2018-21), Indian Statistical Institute (2019-2021), Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES, Japan) (2019), South Asian Cooperation Environmental Programme (SACEP, Sri Lanka) (2018-2020) for preparing SWM roadmap for South Asian Countries, Jute Technology Mission (2008-2011), Central Pollution Control Board (1999-2002), Govt. of India on plastics waste. He has planted more than 15,000 trees having more than 1 year to 36 years for 35% of those.
