How to commit suicide (2)- the Darjeeling chapter

Darjeeling and her WASTE

Darjeeling town has a history, which starts in the latter part of the 1800s when the colonial British developed her as a summer capital. She was not only developed as a summer capital but also as the centre of British interests in tea. It is said that when the British first landed in Darjeeling there was just 16 houses in the Darjeeling Spur.

The core 5 km radius of the Darjeeling Municipality with all its amenities of water, sanitation, housing and offices was planned and developed in the 1930s for approximately 20000 to 30000 people.
Today, the town has grown beyond the core 5 km radius to an area of 7.83 sq km and extends from Jorebunglow to Ging Bazar divided into 32 wards and has a population of 1,03,379 (1991 census). The physical area of the town of 7.83 sq km is an administrative boundary, in reality the socio-ecological boundary extends much beyond the defined area. The growth has been unplanned and the amenities developed in the 1930s are still used to cover the lakhs in the town today.

Darjeeling Municipality today is divided into 32 wards. 30 metric tones of waste is generated in the Darjeeling Municipality daily. This average goes up to 45 metric tones a day in the peak tourist season.

The solid waste management practice adopted today is unhygienic and unscientific causing tremendous problems of health and environment not only to Darjeeling Municipality but also people living down stream.

With the dramatic increase in population and changing consumption patterns, Darjeeling is facing immense problems of waste management. The existing systems of waste management is technically unscientific and infrastructural insufficient to manage the waste. This has resulted in the piling up of waste all over town in vats, street corners and in the jhoras or water ways. All the waste without treatment is dumped into the “dumping chute”. The waste dumped eventually flows into the River Rungeet a tributary of River Teesta, while flowing through a number of communities.

Rotting waste lying about in streets and jhoras has created an unhealthy environment in Darjeeling. With the increasing fast moving consumer durables non-biodegradable packing material, one sees increasing packing material along with the rotting bio-degradable waste. The flies and street dogs population is shooting up. One has even started seeing mosquitoes in the Darjeeling town which was not seen even 10 years ago. The practice of dumping waste into waterways and streams might have been acceptable before the advent of mass non-biodegradable material, but today, plastic packing material, bottles are choking water ways which has resulted in landslides in Darjeeling.

EXISTING ATITUDES in Darjeeling

• MY CLEANLINESS is all that matters!
• ROLL DOWN the waste- somewhere, anywhere but OUT OF MY SIGHT!
• WILL ACCOMMODATE SOME SMELL AND SIGHT as one cannot roll down the waste
• BLAME GAME – everyone else except I am the cause of Darjeeling’s dirt.

“CONTAMINATE YOUR BED, AND YOU WILL ONE NIGHT SUFFOCATE IN YOUR OWN WASTE”

Chief Seattle

WHAT CAN I/WE DO?

• Bring about BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
• I AM/WE ARE RESPONSIBLE
• SEGREGATE WASTE AT HOME/PRIMARY LEVEL INTO BIO-DEGRADABLE AND NON-BIODEGRABLE WASTE
• REDUCE /REUSE/RECYCLE

- REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF WASTE I/WE PRODUCE

- REUSE CREATIVELY ALL POSSIBLE PRODUCTS I/WE USE

- RECYCLE ALL RECYCLABLE PRODUCTS THAT I/WE USE

• COMPOST ALL BIO-DEGRADABLE WASTE
• BE A CONSCIOUS CONSUMER AND CITIZEN REFUSING TO LITTER AND USE POLYBAGS, PLASTIC CUPS etc.
• OFFER CHANGE TO OTHERS

Roshan Rai,
DLR Prerna c/o Hayden Hall Complex,
Darjeeling