The story of a clean and green Mao village in Manipur

Our Correspondent

Imphal, Dec. 16 (EMN): After the successful introduction of certain waste-management tips to the villagers, the second edition of the ‘Dustbin-less Drive Festival’ was held at Kaibi village in Manipur’s Senapati district on Sunday.

The programme is quite simple but has a unique impact of creating awareness about keeping the village clean and green, according to Pukeho Athishu, the secretary of village beautification committee, Kaibi village authority (KVA).

This year,  the KVA had spent about INR 8000 (inclusive of collection and transportation charges) as part of the initiative, and bought 500 kg of dry waste–consisting of paper, plastic, sweet-wrappers, bottles, unused shoes and clothes – for INR 10 per kg from  the residents.

In contrast, the authorities had spent INR 1.8 lakh to buy off 8000 kg of dry-waste for INR 20 per kg last year.

The idea to buy solid-waste started after various attempts at waste-management in the village, populated by the Mao community, went in vain, former village secretary Athishu said.

But the volume of the plastic-waste, this year in particular, generated from the village has been drastically reduced when compared to last year festival’s, he added.

The reason, it was stated, is because of the introduction of certain tips which include segregation of bio-degradable and non-biodegradable waste at the household levels; every Saturday cleaning activities by high school students; imposition of fines and teaching activities at pre-nursery level children etc., in waste management.

Sharing similar sentiment, the chairman of the beautification committee, Dr. Saheni Loli said that the people were becoming “more aware about  the waste issue” after the timely intervention from the village authority.

They even started to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste by using two separate dustbins at their respective houses, Dr. Loli said. At the same time, the beautification committee and village authority routinely check and monitor waste disposal in the village.

Meanwhile, Athishu informed that they would continue to take up the initiative to show the villagers that cleanliness can be maintained, to keep up the spirit of clean and green village adding: “The idea is to turn our village into one of the cleanest in the country as the initiative is on as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. Presently the collected (non-biodegradable) waste is packed in used cement bags and kept at an isolated part of the village for its proper disposal while the biodegradable wastes are used as household manure.

“But we are looking for a support system from the district and state authorities towards creating a proper waste management system,” he added.