Despite spending hundreds of crores annually on waste management, Bengaluru continues to underperform in the Swachh Survekshan rankings. Among 44 cities with a population exceeding 10 lakh, the city has slipped to the 36th position, raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of the ‘Brand Bengaluru’ initiative.
The Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Company has been collecting waste door-to-door using auto tippers, but citizens often ignore this service and dump garbage in public places. Environmental experts say this civic negligence is a major factor in the city’s poor ranking.
Previously, a BBMP delegation visited Indore to study its highly successful waste disposal model and attempted to implement similar methods in five Bengaluru wards. However, the experiment failed to yield results. Environmentalist Renuka Prasad believes this is why the city failed to score better in the national cleanliness survey.
To address the problem, BBMP has decided to implement integrated solid waste management in urban areas through public-private partnerships. The city will be divided into two zones, and waste collection, transportation, disposal, and processing will be handled by private firms on a DBFOT (Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Transfer) model. In 2023, Bengaluru ranked 125th among 446 cities in a separate category. While there has been slight improvement with a score increase of 6,842 points, cities like Ahmedabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow continue to lead.
BBMP Special Commissioner Harish Kumar assured that measures are underway to resolve the city’s waste crisis in the coming days.
