Mounting waste crisis puts Kashmir's ecosystem in danger

For years, a silent yet significant threat has been looming over Indian-administered Kashmir. The valley produces an astonishing 3,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste annually, with over 17,00 metric tonnes being recklessly dumped into agricultural fields, green forests and water bodies. The dumping of waste poses a severe threat to the fragile ecosystem, prompting urgent calls from experts to address this pressing crisis.

In the midst of this crisis, Farooq Ahmad, the 45-year-old village head of Verinag, a hamlet in the southern Kashmiri region of Ananatnag, founded a community-run initiative called Waste to Gold. Ahmad realised the seriousness of the situation when a visitor from outside the valley pointed out a pile of trash that was making his village appear unsanitary.

Ahmad took charge of the situation and recruited a group of volunteers from his hamlet, known as "safaye sewaks" or cleanliness helpers. As he continued to work on the project, other members of the community became interested in joining his efforts. Ahmad's approach was to encourage people in his village to collect trash by offering them gold coins as an incentive, which he believed would yield immediate results and demonstrate his commitment to the environment.

In addition to promoting proper garbage management, Ahmad's strategy also helped to raise public awareness about the harmful effects of improper waste disposal. "My hamlet is now clean after previously being a region littered with trash, and I aim to make it India's first green village," he said. 

Ahmad’s strategy has served as inspiration in several nearby villages, but has yet to be adapted outside of Kashmir.

Gold-coin contest

According to Ahmad, the gold coin contest was won by a resident of a nearby community, which he saw as evidence of how he was able to increase awareness and educate local residents about the importance of proper waste management. "I was overjoyed when a local from a nearby village won the competition to collect trash weighing about two tonnes. I am satisfied because I achieved exactly what I set out to do. Every village should adopt my idea, in my opinion," he said.

Arshid Jahangir, an environmentalist who has been working on waste issues for the past 15 years at Kashmir University told FairPlanet that the choice of "Solution to Plastic Pollution" as this year's environmental theme highlights the importance and magnitude of the problem. He added that the issue is particularly severe in Kashmir as the valley lacks an effective waste treatment system.

"Only one landfill site uses scientific methods to dispose of rubbish, and it is in Srinagar's Achen neighbourhood," he said. “However, the site is overburdened, which has caused leachate to leak onto the neighbouring agricultural land, contaminating it with hazardous pollutants, creating a foul odour and making locals susceptible to diseases.”

He further emphasized the urgency of taking swift action since improper waste dumping can cause a host of problems, including aesthetic challenges, various types of pollution, and other related issues. "Before anything else, the government needs to bring in behavioural changes.”

He said that over 50 percent of waste in Kashmir is disposed of without being treated, which has a detrimental impact on the region’s ecology. "This unscientific waste disposal impacts land, air and water bodies, inflicting significant harm to the overall environment of the area. The government should strengthen waste segregation at the source and implement waste-to-energy principles.”

He claimed that one way to reduce the amount of organic waste in landfills is to turn it into nutrient-rich compost, which can then be used to make low-cost farmer manure. "It will also advance sustainable agricultural methods.”

The government’s waste treatment plants

Recognising the severity of the situation, the Indian government has committed a significant amount of funding to its flagship Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) programme in the region, allocating a whopping 2 billion Indian Rupees (equivalent to approximately USD 26.6 million). The government aims to establish waste treatment facilities in around 78 locations throughout the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the initiative, with the goal of processing over 450 metric tonnes of waste per day.

"Approximately 10 to 12 treatment plants have been established at various locations, and 12 more will be in the following several months,” Mathoora Masoom, director of Rural and Urban Local Bodies in Kashmir, told FairPlanet. “The valley currently produces about 380 metric tonnes of garbage per day, and these treatment facilities will be sufficient to treat around 450 metric tonnes per day, which will be plenty until 2030.”

She further stated that the government has implemented a number of trash segregation techniques at the source to improve efficient garbage management. Municipalities in the valley, according to her, have launched door-to-door waste collection operations and distributed waste-specific dustbins to segregate waste at source. "The segregation helps in effective recycling, reduces the load on landfills, and has a positive environmental impact," she claimed.

An impartial report on the effectiveness of this endeavour is not yet available, and its results on the ground remain to be seen. The administration has been gradually implementing the plan throughout Kashmir over the past few years, but it has not yet been implemented on a large scale. Currently, the government is focusing on promoting the separation of waste at the source.