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CASE STUDIES

Title
PROFITS FROM WASTE : AN NGO-LED INTIATIVE FOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LUCKNOW (UTTAR PRADESH)

Sector
Solid Waste Management

Summary
Lucknow, as in the case of most cities in India, has been struggling with the problem of solid waste management. Muskan Jyoti Samiti is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) which has been successfully providing comprehensive solid waste management services to a part of the city since 1994. Its operations include street cleaning, garbage collection, sorting, transportation, disposal and vermi-composting. It recovers the operation and maintenance cost from the households served.

Location
Lucknow is located Uttar Pradesh. It is the capital of the state.

Situation
The Municipal Corporation of Lucknow was unable to provide adequate and efficient solid waste management services its population (about 1.7 million in 1991). This led to the emergence of a few non-govermental solid waste management initiatives.

Lead
Muskan Jyoti Samiti, an NGO in Lucknow.

Strategy
The inefficiency of the Municipal Corporation to keep the city clean led to the formation of Muskan Jyoti Samiti (MJS) which decided to take up the task of efficient garbage collection and disposal in Lucknow city. MJS also decided to get the community to participate in this effort.

MJS first started its solid waste management operations in an upper middle class locality in Lucknow, but did not achieve much success. It then moved to a lower-middle class locality and succeeded in the effort. After successful operations in middle-class localities, MJS expanded its activities to cover selected slums.

Process
Mobilizing community and getting their agreement to participate was a crucial part of the MJS's waste collection and disposal programme. In order to create awareness and get the community involved, MJS provided the service free for the first two months and levied the monthly charge only in the third month. This brought most of the households in the served locality into the programme.

The Muskan Jyoti Samiti (MJS) currently, through its solid waste management (SMW) initiative called SWATI, serves a population of over 100,000, which includes 20,000 persons living in 22 of the 460 slums in Lucknow city. MJS employs 235 people, including 215 garbage collectors and ragpickers. It operates 250 handcarts, 210 rickshaw trolleys and 5 tractor trolleys.

In March 1999, MJS started a vermi-composting unit and a research centre on a 65 acre site on the outskirts of Lucknow. The research centre is experimenting with bio-farming, particularly to assess the extent to which alkaline or saline land could be reclaimed for cultivation using organic vermi-composting. MJS has also started SWM work in the cities of Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi.

Financing
The initial financing of MJS, of Rs. 25,000, came from the personal savings of its initiator, Mr. Mewalal. It was only later that he was able to secure government support for the programme and was able to recover cost from the households served. In 5 years, since the SWM operations started, MJS was able to make an investment of Rs. 1.2 million in a vermi-composting unit from the surplus generated trhrough SWM operations.

MJS was also provided land, capital and equipment by the state government. The Uttar Pradesh Bhumi Sudhar Nigam (State Land Development Corporation) allocated 65 acres of land free of cost. The State Urban Development Authority (SUDA) gave them a grant of Rs. 124,000 for preparation of the vermi-composting beds and pits, plus 100 cycle trolleys worth Rs. 300,000 at current prices. The Lucknow District Urban Development Authority (DUDA) gave 4 tractor trolleys worth Rs. 236,000 each, plus 200 hand carts priced at Rs. 1000 each.

MJS has not been able to get any support from the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.

Lessons
1. Relationship with the Government - Lack of support from the Corporation is one of the major barriers in the expansion of MJS operations in the city. Such NGO-led urban SWM initiatives could improve if there is an explicit relationship with the city government.
2. Capital for Expansion - Capital is required for acquiring land and new equipment for expansion, MJS has 2 options in this regard:
a) Securing additional grants from Government agencies.
b) Borrowing funds from the market for capital expansion.
While the latter option needs to be examined from the point of view of its viability, the former option could result in reduced autonomy for MJS and affect the price and quality of the service.
3. The strength of NGOs - The case of MJS shows that NGOs can play an important role in urban solid waste management. NGOs have particular strengths in reaching communities, motivating them, creating awareness about problems of waste disposal, and in ensuring their participation in a user-fee-based waste disposal program. It is also possible for an NGO to acquire new skills, such as composting and product marketing, and provide an entire chain of services, from door-to-door collection to environmentally-friendly waste disposal.
4. People's willingness and capacity to pay for SWM - The MJS example demonstrates the viability of providing a fee-paying SWM service in India's urban areas. Even the poorer households in Lucknow are willing to pay a significant amount as the monthly fee for good solid waste collection service to ensure a better living environment.

Contact
Mr. Mewalal

Designation


Organisation
Muskan Jyoti Samiti
Address:
City: Lucknow
State: Uttar Pradesh
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