Voluntary Systems in Action: Garbage Collection in Chennai, India

The issue of garbage collection has been a nightmare in a country like India with a population of over a billion people. Government-run municipal corporations work on subsidized labor and the system is hard to sustain. It is common to see garbage strewn on the streets, causing serious health hazards for the populace. Such a state of affairs has traditionally been a reason to abuse the government of the time. However, one city took a different approach Chennai (then called Madras). Concerned entrepreneurs decided this was too important to leave to the government. In 1989, they formed EXNORA (EXcellent NOvel and RAdical), an organization dedicated to generating ideas for civic improvement. Their first act1 came when the corporation of Chennai decided to experiment with hydrocontainers. For this to succeed, garbage would have to be placed directly in the containers so corporation workers could directly load them onto trucks. These containers were placed at the end of each street so that garbage could be directly placed in it instead of being strewn around a dump. However, residents found it inconvenient to haul their garbage all the way to the containers. Meanwhile rag pickers were known to create a mess on the roads by picking at the garbage in the regular corporation bins. The entrepreneurs at EXNORA found this to be a great opportunity. They took a loan from a bank to buy a tricycle cart and also pay a monthly salary of Rs. 650 ($14.44) to the rag pickers, who were now called street beautifiers. The street beautifier would collect garbage into the cart each morning from the homes on the street and put it in the container, and thereafter sweep the street. In return, every household on the street would contribute Rs. 10 (22 cents) per month toward the salary of the street beautifier. This experiment was extremely successful on the street it was tried on. It was soon replicated across the city. As of 1999, there were 900-950 civic EXNORAs functioning across the city. Each body is self-managing (see Appendix A). The success in the city of Chennai has led to the adoption of this model in other cities, and United Nations has picked this up as a stellar model for developing countries. The man behind EXNORA, M. B. Nirmal, echoes voluntary social science philosophy. He sees opportunity in challenges, the possibility that by confronting them we can create inner strength, and convert waste into resources. 2 He says, The person without challenges is the most miserable in this world. Today, EXNORA has moved beyond garbage collection to environmental protection and management3, discovering entrepreneurial opportunities at each step. EXNORA seems to be a textbook case of a voluntary system in action. First, a self-sustaining business model drove it. Second, it involved participation of society at a local (street) level without the application of force. If enough people did not join, then the model would not sustain, and their street would not be clean.
1

Community Participation for Clean Surroundings EXNORA, India http://www.unesco.org/most/asia3.htm 2 Creating RAdical changes through EXcellent ideas and NOvel approaches: http://indiatogether.org/stories/exnora.htm 3 Vellore Hill Reforestation Project http://www.oneforindia.org/ofi2003/projects/vellorehill.php

Voluntary Systems in Action: Public Toilets Sulabh Shauchalaya

Mahatma Gandhi had spent a lifetime trying to encourage cleanliness, and is known for his remark, Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Sixty years after Indias independence, cleanliness has been a quixotic goal. One of the biggest problems has been the lack of toilet infrastructure, leading to defecation in public places. This poses serious health hazards and has bogged successive governments. Laws that require all houses to have toilets have been ineffective and impractical. The usual practice was to have human scavengers carry the faecal matter and dispose it some distance away.4 However, the last quarter century has seen a big movement change the landscape of toilet technology and sociology. A sociologist by training, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak (see Appendix B) took it up as his mission to provide dignity to less-privileged members of society, both the ones who didnt have access to toilets and the ones who acted as scavengers. He championed5 the adoption of two-pit pour-flush toilet, an affordable, safe and hygienic system for the disposal of the human waste in absence of sewers and septic tanks. The two-pit-pour-flush toilet requires far less water than the traditional septic tank (two liters per use). One pit takes four to five years to fill up (for a family of five) and at that point, the family switches to the second pit. During this time, the waste in the first pit naturally transforms to fertilizer. Dr. Pathak proceeded to found Sulabh International, which specializes in the construction and maintenance of public toilets that operate on a pay-per-use model. One-use costs Rs. 0.5 (1.1 cents), and monthly passes are sold for Rs. 20 (44 cents). Women and children can use the services for free. Bath services are also provided for a cost. 60% of the operational revenues are used to rehabilitate scavengers by providing them vocational training and allowing them to reintegrate into mainstream society. Of late, Sulabh has further expanded into extracting biogas from community toilets through anaerobic decomposition of the waste. Biogas is useful as an alternative fuel for cooking or producing electricity. The movement has been scaled up in the last decade and is a big way of providing sustainable sources of electricity to remote villages. The United Nations Center for Human Settlements has recognized Sulabhs sanitation system as an urban best practice6. Sulabh is again a classic example of using the philosophy of voluntary social systems to bring about desired change where traditional regulatory means have failed. To quote Dr. Pathak, .. my greatest sense of satisfaction lies in the fact that the Sulabh International Social Service Organization has constructed more than 6,000 public toilets in slums and public places and maintain them on pay-and-use basis without putting burden on the Public Exchequer, thereby liberating some 50,000 scavengers from the sub-human occupation of cleaning excreta of others and carrying it as head load. It is easy to mistake Sulabh for a charitable institution. It is really a well-implemented financially viable voluntary system that has never relied on charity for its operation. Such implementations lead credence to the hope that voluntary systems might give our societies solutions to troubling problems.

Spearheading the Cause of Sanitation - http://timesfoundation.indiatimes.com/articleshow/799506.cms Sulabh International Museum of Toilets - http://www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org/profile.htm 6 Best Practices Sulabh Public Toilet Linked Biogas Plant: http://www.unwac.org/showhtml.php?filename=bestp_7
5

Appendix A: Solid Waste Management http://www.exnora.org/swm.html System

In the new system of SWM adopted by Exnora, the households shared the cost of employing a rag picker, (renaming him street beautifier). He was given a monthly income and provided with a tricycle cart and a uniform. The Street Beautifier went from door to door collecting the waste stored inside the houses in the tri-cycle cart and transported it to the transfer stations (secondary collection points), from where it was cleared by the Municipal Corporation. The cost per month per household came to about Rs.10/-. This new system ensured that waste was not disposed onto the streets, or even into the Municipal dustbins, and hence ensured

Cleanliness and hygiene of the surroundings. Rehabilitation of the rag pickers and integrating them into the main stream, by providing employment opportunities and dignity of labor to them. Peoples participation in the system and thus their responsibility toward their environment.

The success of the new system caught on in several other places in the city and within the first few years of its founding, Exnora had around 1000 Civic Exnoras, functioning successfully. New problems This improved primary collection system was soon found to be increasing the pressure on secondary collection, which the local bodies were ill equipped to handle. This resulted in garbage accumulation in the transfer stations. Exnora also identified the problems of disposing wastes in dumping grounds. The two dumping grounds for the city - Perungudi in the south and Kodungaiyur in the north) - were prime wetlands slowly covered by the citys garbage. This resulted in the leacheate polluting the soil and the ground water and air pollution threatening the human and animal life in its surrounding areas.

This forced Exnora to realise that collection and disposal of garbage meant a mere relocation and not management of waste. Exnora then shifted its focus from mechanical collection and disposal, to innovation of new methods of waste recovery - such as composting of organic waste at household level. Vermicomposting was propagated amongst Civic Exnoras, in a sincere attempt towards waste recycling. Very soon this became a common practice in many Exnora areas.

Appendix B: Sulabh Shauchalaya Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak studied various designs of latrines and work done in this field in India and abroad and developed Sulabh Shauchalayatechnology, which is technologically appropriate, socio-culturally acceptable and economically affordable. It is low cost, requires only two liters of water to flush and can function even where enough water is not available. 7

The Sulabh system of Twin Pit Pour Flush (TPPF) toilets uses about two liters of water per flush as opposed to the 14 liters required by a regular toilet. It alternately deposits waste into two pits. The first pit can be used by a family of five for up to four years. When the first pit is full, the family can switch to the second pit, which also can be used for about four years. Over that period, the waste in the first pit is gradually and naturally converted into a rich material that can be removed and used as dry, powdery fertilizer. Each pit is about one and a half meters deep and lined with a lattice of bricks. The gas formed by the decomposing waste is absorbed into the surrounding soil, eliminating any foul smell. Experiments conducted in India have established that bacteria from the pits travel no more than three meters vertically, and extend less than one meter downward. The design of the system and the pits can be modified as needed to protect water sources and underground soil. A Sulabh system can be built for as little as Rs.500/- a little more than $10, which makes it an affordable option even in the poorer regions of India. In urban areas that have costly sewer systems, Sulabh systems have been adopted as community toilets, often with an innovative modification: the attachment of a biogas plant. Through these plants, human waste produces nutrient-rich water that can be used for irrigation, and biogas that, when mixed with diesel fuel, can power electrical devices like streetlights. Biogas Sulabh systems have come to be popular in hospitals, schools and hotels.8 For a fascinating history of toilets, see Sulabh Museum of Toilets http://www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org/

7 8

http://www.sulabhinternational.org/pg02.htm http://www.islamonline.net/English/Science/2003/09/article14.shtml