220 S. GALAB, S. SUDHAKAR REDDYAND AND ISA BAUD
of the available information, it cannot be said whether the amount of waste going to
the dumpsite for final disposal has decreased. The activities are still in a too early stage
to comment on this aspect.
Sukuki Exnora started the vermicomposting unit in a corner of Indira Park. They
invested an Rs 70,000 in this unit and in the other unit at Jubilee Hills. The government
provided them with land, water and power free of cost at Indira Park. The NGO is the
contractor for several residential areas, whose collected waste they brought to the park
(two lorries of garbage daily). Because it consisted of mixed garbage, the environ-
mental conditions deteriorated. Now market waste is utilized as a basis for
composting. This set-up means that investment in this practice is heavily subsidised,
and the basic resources for composting and selling are free of cost. Nevertheless, the
investment made by the NGO is fairly high by Indian standards.
The process of composting is done in a labour-intensive way. Once the garbage is
brought to the unit, the workers separate plastic, paper, glass and metal scrap, and
other items like coconut shells, rubber/tyre waste, cloth, and wooden waste. The
remaining garbage consists of household waste, leafy and other compostable matter.
They allow the biodegradable material to decompose for about 15 to 20 days in
pre-treatment beds. The pre-treatment bed is 30 metres long and 2 metres wide and
produces 30 to 40 tonnes of garbage. The cow dung slurry treatment is undertaken on
the bed, i.e. cow dung is sprinkled on the bed. These beds are covered with black poly-
thene sheets, which make the process of decomposing quicker as they absorb the heat
fast. The decomposed biodegradable material is shifted to vermicomposting beds after
20 days. The composting bed is 30 metres long, 12 metres wide and one metre in
height. No chemicals are used in this process. Two types of worms are used in the
Indira Park, which are put in the bed in different layers. These beds are regularly
watered in the morning and evening for about 45 to 60 days. This process leads to
harvesting of the manure after 60 days.
There is little seasonal variation in the output over the first period of operation. The
harvested quantity of manure was only one ton per month in the six months previous
to the interview. They have started selling manure with the brand name “Suvarna
Manure” since January 2000, at a rate of Rs 4 per kg, but selling is still a problem. Out
of the total quantity of manure, Exnora itself used one ton. There is a buy back agree-
- Besides vermicomposting units, Sukuki Exnora is associated with socially useful activities like map
awareness programmes, GIS, training, advertising, and conservancy services. They have also recently
started ‘Street Beautifiers Scheme’ under which rehabilitation of waste pickers takes place by provid-
ing tricycles for collection of household garbage. Apart from this, they have taken up the responsibil-
ity of planting, watering and maintenance of 6,300 new plants and also maintenance of 7,700 old
plants in circle III covering Kachiguda, Barkatpura, Narayanaguda, Himayatnagar, Vidyanagar,
Amberpet and Ramananthapur areas.