54 S. GALAB, S. SUDHAKAR REDDY AND JOHAN POST
vene these requirements. There is some reason to believe that private workers, on
average, are slightly worse off than their MCH colleagues. In the private sector,
loading and unloading of vehicles, for example, is almost exclusively done by manual
labour because contractors rarely use trucks with hydraulic lifting devices. The current
contracting system does not encourage investment in equipment that will make work
easier. Furthermore, contractors are more likely to save on protective gear.
Environmental impact
The SWC policy of the MCH is primarily directed at a reduction of immediate public
health hazards. The main goal is to keep neighbourhoods tidy and to have the waste
removed from these areas in a controlled fashion. No attention is given to the preven-
tion of waste production or to the minimisation of waste or the promotion of recycling
and reuse. Any effects of the policy in these respects, therefore, are accidental. A few
indirect environmental impacts may be observed.
First of all, the private contractors are often using very old trucks that usually emit
high concentrations of pollutants. According to the contract conditions the trucks of
the contractors should be less than 15 years of age. However, in reality the average age
of the trucks in use by the contractors is 27 years (!); 52 percent of the trucks is older
than 25 years^12. Furthermore, the trucks of the private contractors are obliged by the
MCH to dispose of their loads at the designated dumpsites rather than at one of the
intermediary transfer stations. The trucks are very often stuck in traffic on their way
to and from the dumpsites, which are situated far away from their unit areas. During
transportation littering of waste is quite common due to careless packing without any
top cover on the waste. This seems to apply more to trucks used by private operators
than to the MCH trucks.
As far as the recycling and reuse of waste is concerned, the privatisation of SWC has
probably a marginal impact only. On the one hand the interventions made larger quan-
tities of mixed waste available at secondary collection points and dumpsites, enabling
waste pickers to sort out valuable materials. On the other hand those officially charged
with SWC will seek to avoid waste pickers having free access to the waste as this
impairs their work and may lead to littering.
An obvious positive impact of the privatisation campaign is that the quantities of
waste that are being collected and disposed of in a controlled fashion have increased
substantially, thereby reducing environmental hazards for people within their residen-
tial areas (likelihood of catching an infectious or parasitic disease due to exposure to
waste) and for environmental degradation (water pollution or soil degradation due to
leakage). At the same time, however, more waste will reach the dumpsites, whose
- This figure was based on a list provided by MCH specifying the equipment of 44 contractors working
in circle 4 and 5.