The waste disposal system is missing in K.Golahalli, which causes locals to litter the village.
The village of Kumbalgodu Golahalli (K.Golahalli) is filled with garbage and lacks proper garbage disposal facilities. Across all directions in the village, there are piles of uncleared food, plastic, and paper waste. The road is lined with piles of waste and burning garbage which create a foul smell. A board at the entrance of the village says ‘No Dumping, Fine – Rs.5000’.
“There are no public dustbins or any garbage collecting vehicles in the village for disposal of waste,” said Venkatesh, a resident of K.Golahalli who is in charge of the water supply in the village.
The Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 state, that no person should burn their garbage or bury or dump the garbage in water bodies, yet this practice is carried out for most of the common waste of the village.
“No facilities are available to regularly clear the waste. We take our everyday garbage and burn it. They clear it once in a while and only if it is close to a festival or any celebration,” says Yashaswini, a student of Kengeri First Grade College, a resident of the village.
Kalaavathi, the former President of the Gram Panchayat at K.Golahalli, currently a member of the Panchayat said that she had purchased three garbage disposal vehicles during her tenure of one year, before 2022, totally worth Rs.13 lakhs. She says the new president does not use those vehicles now, nor are they anywhere to be found. “The people litter the public spaces and burn or dispose of the garbage in the nearby water bodies as there is still no proper disposal system in the village.”
The Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 also mention that all garbage should be segregated during disposal.
“We have sanctioned two new garbage collecting vehicles. We will create a proper timetable for the days of garbage collection and create awareness on how to separate and segregate garbage among our locals,” said Srinivas, the secretary of the Gram Panchayat at Golahalli.
However, Venkatesh said, “they only clear the garbage once in a month or once in two months, with tractors, so we usually dispose of the garbage in the nearby river.”
Bala from Saahas Waste Management, said, “Even though the severity of the problems created from the village is not too high, it can create a foul smell across the village and contaminate the drinking water of the residents, which can slowly cause problems in their health.”
“No fines have been collected till now for dumping garbage in the ‘No Dumping Zone’ and the land allotment for the sanitary landfill is still in process,” Srinivas added.
