RAFIABAD (Baramulla): The Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase-II, launched in 2020-21, aimed to revolutionise rural waste management in Jammu and Kashmir’s 6,650 villages. However, four years later, the program faces significant challenges due to poor planning, lack of enforcement, and lack of public confidence.
The initiative sought to provide safe solid and liquid waste (SLW) management in every gram panchayat. According to official data, the government constructed 6,535 waste collection and segregation sheds, installed 50,000 dustbins, and built over 23,826 community soak pits, 12,308 compost pits, and 5,527 sanitary complexes.
Sheds but no segregation
However, these segregation sheds have largely failed, with many turning into open dumping grounds due to a lack of awareness, improper management, and poor enforcement of waste segregation policies. The overflowing waste now threatens public health and the environment.
Block Development Officer Dr. Abdul Rasheed Ganie explained that these sheds were designed to separate household waste, including polythene, diapers, plastics, and biomedical waste.
“Households were supposed to separate dry and wet waste and dispose it in designated sections,” Ganie said. “Instead, people are dumping mixed waste, rendering the system ineffective.”
The government provided compost kits to rural households and established awareness programs through Gram Sabha Panchayat meetings. However, these efforts had minimal impact, as participation was low and awareness campaigns failed to reach the entire community.
Sanitary Inspector Reyaz Ahmad Qadri highlighted that while waste management infrastructure exists, the execution remains weak.
“In Baramulla, dry waste is dumped in a landfill, and wet waste is converted into fertilizer at a facility in Chadoora. We also built vermicompost pits in rural areas, especially for cow dung, but villagers are using them for personal storage instead,” Qadri said.
He also pointed out that Rafiabad, a region with over 100 villages, lacks a designated scientific waste segregation site. “This is a major loophole. Without proper facilities, these sheds have become open garbage dumping yards.”
No Treatment facilities
Assistant Professor Dr. Arshid Jehangir explained that segregation sheds are only primary collection points. The waste must be further processed at treatment facilities or scientific landfill sites.
The Solid Waste Management Policy mandates segregation at the source, categorizing waste into dry, wet, hazardous, and electronic. Policies like the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in India emphasize source segregation, decentralized waste processing, and extended producer responsibility (EPR) for industries.
“Municipal bodies handle dry and wet waste, while registered vendors manage electronic and plastic waste. However, segregation at the source isn’t happening effectively,” explains Dr. Jehangir said.
He blames the lack of public co-operation as a key obstacle. “Even when authorities provide separate dustbins, people continue mixing waste, disrupting the entire waste management system.”
Besides, many of the 23,826 community soak pits and 12,308 compost pits either remain unused or have been repurposed by villagers for personal use instead of waste management.
Social activist, Dr. Hamidullah Mir, criticized both the government and the public for failing to implement proper waste management.
“The government gave dustbins for streets and markets, but none of them are in their designated places anymore,” Mir said. “Both the authorities and the people are responsible for this mess.”
Waste Hills – Urban to Rural
Scientific segregation of waste involves separating waste into categories such as recyclable materials, compostable organic waste, and landfill-bound garbage. Proper segregation allows for recycling, composting, and sustainable landfill usage. However, in rural Kashmir, this system has not been effectively implemented.
Already, the urban areas are brimming with unattended waste dumps, due to the lack of a scientific waste segregation scheme and facilities for doing so, with serious consequences to environment and public health.
One of the most notorious examples is Srinagar’s Achan dumping site, the only one that caters to the needs of the city’s 17.25 lakh people.
“Srinagar generates over 500 tonnes of waste daily, all of which is dumped at the Achan landfill site without proper treatment,” says Dr. Arshid Jehangir. “This site was meant to be a scientific landfill with leachate treatment, but decades on those facilities still don’t exist,” he adds.
According to the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules of 2016 notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in India,, only 20% of the city's waste should be landfilled, with the rest processed through recycling or composting.
However, poor enforcement has turned Achan into an uncontrolled dumping ground, reducing its lifespan and posing serious environmental hazards, Dr Jehangir laments.
For environmental experts and the villagers, the worries of the rural dumping grounds becoming similar replicas of Achan are deepening.
With no functioning system for recycling or composting, open garbage dumps have become the default method of waste disposal. This not only pollutes the environment but also attracts stray animals and increases health concerns.
Passing the Blame
While government officials pass the buck on the public, the people in rural areas blame the government’s poor infrastructure and lack of awareness.
While the officials talk about the awareness programs under Swachh Bharat Mission conducted through Gram Sabha meetings, the villagers reveal that these failed to create a lasting impact.
"These programs reached only selected individuals, not the entire village. Most people remained unaware of proper waste segregation methods," says Dr Hamidullah Mir.
Imtiyaz Ahmed, a shopkeeper in Rafiabad, said that the sheds were built in unsuitable locations.
“If people dump garbage in this shed, it will seriously affect our health,” Ahmed said. “The idea was good, but these sheds should have been built outside the village, not in the middle of residential areas.”
Former Sarpanch Mushtaq Ahmed Parray raised similar concerns, citing environmental risks. “Our village’s sheds were built on the banks of a water stream. The garbage is spilling out of the sheds and now, the stream is polluted. I warned the authorities in 2022, but they ignored my concerns.”
Former Sarpanch Ashiq Hussain Wani highlighted additional consequences of poor waste management, including public health hazards and rising stray dog populations.
“These sheds have become breeding grounds for stray dogs,” Wani said. “The garbage, including diapers, polythene, and plastics, is scattered in the open. This has led to foul odors, disease outbreaks, and safety concerns, especially for children.”
In response to the growing crisis, the administration plans to launch a new initiative in March. A private agency will collect door-to-door waste using five vehicles with separate compartments for dry and wet waste. The collected garbage will be transported to a designated barren site for proper disposal.
Community participation
Panchayat Inspector Manzoor Ahmed stressed the need for community involvement. “The land provides for us, yet people continue to pollute it,” Ahmed said. “We’ve asked villagers to contribute ₹50 per month for waste collection, but cooperation has been minimal.”
He noted that in municipal areas like Watergam, residents pay ₹1,200 annually for sanitation charges, Irfan Najar from Watergam confirmed that the town’s residents pay ₹1,200 per year to the municipal committee, and “in return, they clean our streets and collect kitchen waste.”
Manzoor Ahmed uses this example as a counterpoint to argue that unlike Watergam, people in many villages refuse to contribute. He emphasizes on the need for a collective government-public effort to preserve Kashmir’s environment and public health.
However, locals are skeptical of the measures being taken by the government and are unwilling to co-operate.
Former Sarpanch Mushtaq Ahmad Parray says that people have rejected the suggestion of paying a ₹50 monthly waste collection fee. They question why the government, after spending ₹5.5 lakh on each shed, has not appointed any workers for regular cleaning, he points out.
"Locals are angry about this proposal. Why should we pay when there’s no proper system? Even when we separate waste, it all gets dumped together. There’s no trust in the authorities," he says, outlining the limited scope of co-operation and co-ordination amidst existing trust deficit."
"Without scientific waste management, these sheds will always be open garbage dumps. The government must fix the system first before blaming the people," Parray says.
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