South Maubuang Sets a Benchmark in Community-Led Plastic Waste Management
- NATURE SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Life&More- 0
- 5 minutes read
Team L&M
South Maubuang in Aibawk block of Aizawl district in Mizoram has been declared a model ODF Plus village. It has fulfilled all the criteria as per SBM-G Phase II guidelines. It is first ODF Plus village in the State of Mizoram. The village has a population of 649 individuals from 116 households.
ODF Sustainability
All the three schools in the village and two anganwadi centres, the community hall and the Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendra (BNGRSK) hall have good arrangement for toilets.
The schools ensure there are separate facilities for boys and girls. A community sanitary complex has also been constructed near the community hall to cater to the people that congregate there for functions and events.
Biodegradable Waste Management
In 2021, the village was awarded the National Panchayat Award which entailed a prize money of Rs 5 lakh. The Village Council used the prize money to improve solid waste management in every household.
Today, 98 per cent of the total households have arrangements for biodegradable waste material. Apart from this, the village constructed community compost pits, with SBM-G and MGNREGS funds at various institutions and schools.
Liquid Waste Management
All households located on the downhill side of the roads have their grey water flow into their kitchen gardens. Households do not need soak pits because natural processes treat the grey water they generate.
As a result, the vegetables from the kitchen gardens of households result in good quality vegetables. People use these for their own consumption.
Plastic Waste Management
Even though plastic products have become an integral part of people’s lives, it has emerged as an important environmental challenge, particularly in the rural areas, owing to which plastic waste management is a critical criterion for declaring villages ODF Plus.
The Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) collects plastic waste from every household in South Maubuang village each week and stores it in the village’s plastic waste collection area.
Once enough plastic accumulates, workers transport it to the Plastic Waste Resource Management Centre at Aibawk, where they sort and shred it or feed it into the baling machine.
Every corner of the village has plastic bins. The villages also passed a resolution banning single use plastics. The introduction of the Plastic Waste Resource Center ensures effective plastic disposal management.
Faecal Sludge Management
VWSCs with active community participation consistently ensure proper treatment of faecal sludge. People moved from from traditional trench pits to single pits in the Swachh Bharat Mission Phase-I. All households now have either twin pits or septic tanks, the latter connected to soak pits.
