New Delhi, (thestates.news) Minister of State
(Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday
said almost all of urban India is today Open Defecation Free (ODF) and
scientific processing of solid waste, which stood at a mere 18 per cent at the
start of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban in 2014, has more than tripled and now
stands at 65 per cent.
In commemoration of World Environment Day 2020, Mr Puri launched a series of
advisories here at Nirman Bhavan.
The programme titled ‘Saving Biodiversity through Effective Waste Management’
was webcast live and was also attended by Mr Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary,
MoHUA and Mr V K Jindal, Joint Secretary and National Mission Director, Swachh
Bharat Mission-Urban.
The three key advisories released included the ‘Advisory on Material Recovery
Facilities for Municipal Solid Waste’, ‘Advisory on Landfill Reclamation’ and a
‘Consultative Document (draft) on On-site and Off-site Sewage Management Practices’
prepared by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering
Organisation under SBM-U.
At the event, the Minister said, ‘On this day, we get the chance to reinforce
the intrinsic connection between biodiversity conservation and effective waste
management. Swachhata and conservation of biodiversity indeed go hand in hand.’
‘The documents being released today by my Ministry is an effort to find and
facilitate sustainable solutions to some of the key problems hindering holistic
sanitation and solid waste management,’ Mr Puri said.
The Ministry also released a toolkit for a communication campaign on faecal
sludge management titled ‘Malasur- The Demon of Defeca’ which aims to heighten
the risk perception of faecal sludge. Conceptualised and designed in support
from BBC Media Action, the toolkit has a host of creative outputs in 10 Indian
languages along with English. (uni) (mediasaheb.com)
Scientific processing of solid waste now stands at 65 pc : Puri
