The waste management problem calls for the development of appropriate optimal techniques and technology. However, lack of homogeneity in terms of its source, nature and content, may be a factor working against a comprehensive and effective management policy. Various studies have discussed the issue from the point of view of both developed and developing countries as also from the point of view of urban units from within a particular country. Various estimates have been made about the total quantity of garbage generated in the various cities of India. We shall not repeat them.

Short-term strategy and constraints

While garbage removal services do not provide much scope for technological progress, one observes certain built-in biases in the spatial coverage of services. Waste collection vehicles that can serve paved roads tend to under serve low-income areas relatively to high-income zones.

The constraints faced by municipalities are many. Insufficient finance, inadequate instruments for resource mobilization, a mismatch between existing infrastructural support systems and the dynamic pressures of mereasing urbanization, may explain why the quantum of generated wastes cannot be removed in a satisfactory manner. Could one interpret the current Calcutta Municipal Garbage Management Policy to be the response to such factors? The civic authorities are now exploring the possibilities of engaging private agencies supplementing the traditional methods at their disposal for speedier removal of waste. The Falpatti experiment is one such endeavour, which appears to be working reasonably well. We present below some preliminary findings of such an experiment in garbage management.

Falpatti Experiment – A Novel Strategy of Garbage Management – some preliminary findings

Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC)’s search for diverse institutional arrangements to evolve an appropriate garbage management policy culminated in among others, the Falpatti experiment. Here, the CMC has been reported to have engaged private agencies in supplementing the traditional municipal infrastructure for the speedy removal of wastes that are generated in a wholesale fruit market in Mechua, also known as Falpatti. As is obvious, the nature of wastes that accumulates here us distinct from other residential areas. To remove such wastes, which approximately are about 30 tons daily, a tripartite arrangement involving the bazaar samity comprising of ‘aratdars’ and mahajans, CMC and a private agency has been evolved. In this strategy of waste management, since 1985, the fruit market was brought under parking fee. As is the usual practice, the licence to collect parking fee was given to the highest bidder, but in this instance the responsibilities of waste management were also tagged on to the total package. Thus the contracting agent who obtains parking fee licence is also required to keep the place free of garbage with his infrastructure. The strategy of garbage management thus consists of privatization to a limited extent subject to regulation by the CMC.

The objective of our project is to study the strategy, to evaluate the efficacy of the market solution in the handling and disposal of wastes. It is the cost-benefit aspect of responsibility sharing and revenue farming that is our particular focus. Whether such arrangement was conducive to the speedy removal of waste and contains the possibilities of transforming a civic service entailing costs into one that could confer benefits also, whether such a strategy could be adopted to suit the mix of activities in other areas would obviously be borne out from such a study. While general conclusions of the project must await a survey, which is scheduled to be held in the immediate future, we present below some preliminary findings from our pilot survey and the various field visits and interviews conducted with the concerned agents of this market, namely, the fruit sellers, the private agency engaged in garbage management and the general civic population of the area. Our primary focus at this stage of our study will be to discuss the economics of the new contractual arrangement.