From a landfill flowing into a river to a green space with zero waste, here is a success story from the queen of the hills. A 40-tonne, colonial era landfill was turned into a green area—a big step towards a cleaner and greener Mussoorie.
The Aglar river water breathes a new breath of life now, and so does the Yamuna. Mussoorie leads the way in showing how a vision, will and an empowered community can make all the difference, and build an inclusive, contextualised and resilient model of plastic waste management in the tourist cities of India.
A vision and a will to implement it has no limits, and this has been exemplified by the cleaning up of the hill station’s Gadi Khan landfill, which dated back to the colonial times.
This was accomplished by Hilldaari’s efforts, which took up the cleaning up of the landfill that had become a threat to the residents as well as the local ecology. This is in line with the movement’s previous attempts to make Mussoorie the cleanest town in India.
The colonial era landfill that held more than 10,000 metric tonnes of solid waste, had become a threat to tourism and the health of the residents.
This is because waste from it would slide down into a nearby river, from which water was being supplied to all of Mussoorie. Also, the Aglar river being an important tributary of Yamuna, would further add to Yamuna’s pollution as well.
How Did The Clean Up Happen?
The landfill has been cleaned up using tech-based, solid waste management techniques; training waste handlers; and using QR codes to track waste. To accomplish this, waste was treated at the source by motivating people to segregate waste into dry and wet.
The wet waste was then sent to Dehradun for being treated further, while the dry waste being processed with the help of another local partner. A total of 36% of the waste was thus processed.
Doors of inhabitants were digitally marked and QR codes were used to track waste. This also promoted behavioural changes, leading to a further reduction in the waste generation and making segregation easier.
Project Hilldaari, supported by Nestlé India, and implemented by Stree Mukti Sangathana, with tech support from Recity Network Pvt. Ltd., is on a mission to build inclusive, contextualised and resilient models of plastic waste management in the tourist cities of India.
It is currently operational in six cities (Mussoorie, Nainital, Dalhousie, Mahabaleshwar, Ponda and Munnar). The project has reached out to 35,976 residents, educating them on the importance of waste segregation and anti-littering behaviour, in the last three years.
It is also professionalising 546 waste workers across cities, enabling urban local bodies (ULBs) to provide efficient collection services, so as to achieve real-time visibility and transparency in their daily operations through technology interventions. This also includes Mussoories’ 200 wasteworkers who have been professionalised.
Hear From The Residents Of Mussoorie
The overflowing Gadi Khan landfill, could be seen from Zero Point and Library Chowk. It had not only become an eyesore for the tourists visiting Mussoorie, but it had also begun to impact the health of Mussoorie’s inhabitants.
“I have my hotel near the Gadi Khan landfill and we would not even open then windows to that side as it would stink. Today, it feels as if a fresh lease of life has been breathed into our hotels,” said a hotel owner.
“We are on a mission to establish Mussoorie as a model for solid waste management. Very soon, it will be the cleanest town in India,” said Arjun Gupta, chairperson of Hilldaari.
Neha Sasikumar, deputy manager of Hilldaari said that, “It was not just about the Aglar river, which is the source of all the water for Mussoorie, but also that it is a key tributary to the Yamuna. The Gadi Khan, a landfill thus had much more harsher impact on our ecosystem that what we can imagine.”
She added: “I am proud of the change we have been able to usher in, and can confidently claim that it was possible only because all of us came together to fulfill our zimmedaari (responsibility) towards the environment. The credit goes to the people of Mussoorie.”
Anuj Gupta, the chairman of Mussoorie Nagar Palika Parishad, said:
“With the help of Hilldari’s focus on technology, we were able to see how much waste is generated by our town and were able to map it. This was a transformational way of dealing with waste and we only are planning to continue the efforts.”