“For changing the concept of zero waste into a reality in Kashmir the community involvement in waste management practices has to be a priority for the waste collecting agencies not only in urban parts of Kashmir Valley and famed tourist destinations but even in remotest of the remote rural areas in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division.”
The concept of zero waste through trash segregation is debated more but implemented less in Jammu & Kashmir. Experiences in several parts of the country have proved it beyond doubt that concept of Zero waste through trash segregation requires community intervention as is being fortunately witnessed in some parts of the Srinagar city. The increasing spirit of clearing the waste from public places in and around is some parts of Srinagar city and the trend if spread to other parts of Kashmir particularly the areas lying in the vicinity of tourist hotspots like Pahalgam, Sonamarg , Aharbal, Mattan and Kokernag would change the concept of zero waste into a reality in a short time of few years. For changing the concept of zero waste into a reality in Kashmir the community involvement in waste management practices has to be a priority for the waste collecting agencies not only in urban parts of Kashmir Valley and famed tourist destinations but even in remotest of the remote rural areas in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division. Volunteers if motivated to do the job of waste disposal management in towns and villages across Jammu & Kashmir would by all standards of understandabilities play a central role in changing ideas of zero waste into a reality. For all practical purposes the volunteer interventions will obviously leave very little for the municipalities to do in enforcing the ideas of zero waste in cities and town across Jammu & Kashmir. So increasing the volunteery spirits about waste disposal management among the youth and do the routine job of trash collection and its disposal are the twin roles the civic bodies can play now in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division. The engagement and involvement of youth volunteers in the waste disposal management practices would also encourage investments in a decentralized and cost-effective systems that would ease the practices of trash collection and disposal even in the remote of the remote areas in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division.
“While engagement of volunteers makes trash disposal a daily routine practice for the both the rural and urban populations across Jammu & Kashmir, the role of civic bodies consequently reduces to the role of facilitators instead of service providers. Methods of community interventions play a much bigger role than the infrastructural interventions of the civic bodies in implementation of zero waste practices even in the top metropolitan cities of the country. As investment in zero waste programs greatly reduces pollution, this environment friendly practice consequently encourages business operators to adopt zero landfill goals more intensely in tourist areas than at other places.”
Experiences have shown that volunteery efforts always reduce the interventions of Government in the delivery of public services and encouragement of volunteers in waste management and disposal practices could boost the agenda of transforming concept of zero waste into a reality cities and towns across Jammu & Kashmir. While engagement of volunteers makes trash disposal a daily routine practice for the both the rural and urban populations across Jammu & Kashmir, the role of civic bodies consequently reduces to the role of facilitators instead of service providers. Methods of community interventions play a much bigger role than the infrastructural interventions of the civic bodies in implementation of zero waste practices even in the top metropolitan cities of the country. As investment in zero waste programs greatly reduces pollution, this practice consequently encourages business operators to adopt zero landfill goals more intensely in tourist areas than at other places.
