COLLECTION,TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL OF URBAN SOLID WASTE 47
population two slaughterhouses and eight markets have been selected to assess waste
collection and disposal practices^9. The quantities of waste generated by these units per
day range from 20 tons (Monda vegetable market) to some 200 kg (Ramnagar fish
market). In most of the markets the waste is stored in metal containers or RCC bins,
but some simply dump it in open places. Two markets (Gudimalkapur vegetable
market and Gaddiannaram fruit market) have entrusted the responsibility of waste
collection to private contractors while all the others call upon the MCH to remove the
waste. This is all done by trucks and on a daily basis. The management of several
markets and slaughterhouses considers shifting responsibility for waste collection to
private contractors, which they expect to provide more regular and reliable service
than the MCH.
Among all the markets only Gaddiannaram fruit market has a composting unit. The
management of the fruit market has allotted one acre of land to the vermin-composting
unit for which technical know-how is provided by the SPEQL (see chapter 10). It is
one of the model-composting units in Andhra Pradesh. The farmers and horticulturists
from the surrounding villages and districts buy the compost prepared from this unit as
well. None of the markets sells any inorganic waste material except for paper.
3.5. SWC IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS
In the remaining part of this chapter the focus will be on household waste and the
organisation of its removal. A distinction can be made between the basic SWC system
run by the MCH itself or its accredited agents from the private sector, and the VGDS
which can be seen as a further upgrading of the basic service.
Basic service
In principle the MCH utilises a uniform SWC system regardless of the status of the
area. In actual fact, however, regular servicing is confined to legally recognised resi-
dential areas. For reasons of public health, people living in illegal settlements and
slums are not entirely ignored but service levels are considerably lower in terms of
availability of waste bins and frequency of collection. People are expected to bring
their garbage to vantage points (dustbins, garbage houses, containers or open dump-
sites). Sweepers see to it that the streets are cleaned and bring the swept waste to the
same communal collection points. From there the waste is lifted manually into
vehicles that transport it either directly to one of the three city dumps or to a transfer
site. The MCH is planning to establish twelve such transfer stations – three are already
- The markets selected for the study are Gudimalkapur vegetable market, Monda vegetable market,
Kothapet Rythu Bazar, Madannapet vegetable market, Uppal vegetable market, Gaddiannaram fruit
market, Mojam Zahi flower market, Ramnagar fish market and Amberpet slaughter house and Bolak-
pur slaughter house.