Q. Most of the towns and cities in India become full of big garbage dumps, dusty broken roads and chaotic traffic. What role can be scientific management and technology play in overcoming these problems? Explain with examples. (53-55 BPSC/2012)

Q. Most of the towns and cities in India become full of big garbage dumps, dusty broken roads and chaotic traffic. What role can be scientific management and technology play in overcoming these problems? Explain with examples. (53-55 BPSC/2012)

Ans: With unplanning urbanization, growing pollution and lack of resources Indian towns and cities are facing diverse problems.
Full of big garbage dumps:

• Barely 35,600 metric tonnes (MT) or a quarter of the 1.43 lakh MT of garbage generated every day in Indian cities gets processed. The remaining three-quarters about 1.1 lakh MT are dumped in the open.
  • i.e. 75% of municipal garbage in India dumped without processing.
• Only eight of 35 states process more than half the daily garbage generated in their cities and not one has achieved 100% processing.
• State-wise data on the website of the urban affairs ministry shows that states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand don’t process even 10% of their municipal garbage. while Arunachal Pradesh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli don’t process municipal garbage at all.
• Municipal bodies are dumping waste on to landfill sites, which are overflowing their capacity and polluting the surrounding land, groundwater and air. According to the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), cities are now running out of land on which to dump their waste and have begun throwing it in the ‘backyards’ of smaller towns, suburbs and villages.
• India’s national capital has three waste dumping sites – Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla – and among them, the Ghazipur dump is already in running to be taller in height than national monuments like Qutub Minar and Taj Mahal.

The extent of situation of broken road can be gauged from the fact that as many as 1,604 persons were killed and 5,831 persons were injured due to broken road (mainly due to potholes) in 2018. On an average, the road accident causes 1.5 lakh causality per year in India.The reason behind the chaotic traffic is that the road network and planning has not kep the pace with the increase in number of vehicles on road.
Role of scientific management and technology:

• For garbage management:
  • The Government of India has launched Swachh Bharat Mission. The objective of the Mission is to improve solid waste management practices leveraging modern technologies.
  • Online platforms: Online platforms provide options and alternatives to the user to look into reusing old stuff. The existing user is also encouraged to look for options to sell and regain value from the product before discarding the product as waste.
  • Analytics: Accurate projections on total waste generated, waste type and identification of high waste generation areas enable effective planning and management of solid waste management services. Use of analytics during events with large citizen involvement such as festivals and fairs can ensure smooth collection and transport of waste.
  • Sensor-based waste collection: Sensor-based waste bins to identify status of waste bins if it is empty or filled so as to customise the waste collection schedule accordingly and save costs
  • GPS devices and sensors on waste truck: GPS technology to route the waste collection trucks to optimise the collection efficiency and ensure contractors dump waste in designated places. It will also give a clear picture of waste generated per ward
  • Sensor-based sorting: Sorting waste material with the use of sensor technology helps in smart sorting. The sensor technology can recognise materials based on their visible spectrum or colour with infrared/ultraviolet spectra or based on their specific and unique spectral properties of reflected light.
  • Pollution sensors: Leverage the pollution sensors to gauge pollution levels at landfills.
  • Energy simulation (waste to energy): Use of energy simulation software and analytics can provide accurate projections of waste generation and energy production from waste.
  • Analytics-based landfill management: Accurate waste generation and collection projections along-with break-up of type of waste can enable smart landfill management.
  • Integrated command and operations centre: Leverage integrated command and operations centre to monitor city services on real-time.
  • Geospatial dashboard: Bin locations, landfill locations, waste management assets need to be mapped in geospatial system.
  • Scientific landfill:
    • It has scientific design during construction. It eliminate the risk of waste seeping underground as the base layer is constructed of 90 metres of clay, thus arresting any seepage or leakage within the landfill.
    • On top of the base layer, a drainage layer made of soil, the presence of these layers ensures that leachate is collected before it seeps underground.
    • Scientific landfills also act as degassing systems by reducing the production of methane. Since the layers soak most of the impurities in the waste disposed, methane generates slowly compared to the generation speed in ordinary landfills.
  • Bioremediation is a technique that involves the use of organisms to remove or neutralize pollutants from a contaminated site. It uses the pollution eating microbes e.g. Oil Zappers to feed on oil spills.
  • Space satellites can be used to identify the regional spread of solid waste.
  • gasification: process that transforms a carbon-based material, such as MSW or biomass, into other forms of energy without actually burning it.
  • Plasma gasifier is a high-voltage current is fed to a torch, creating a high-temperature arc. The inorganic residue is retrieved as a glass like substance. It can help recover precious metals for recycling.
  • Pyrolysis is a process of chemically decomposing organic materials at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen.
  • Science and tech can also be used to aware people and report the mismanagement.
  • Automated Waste Sorter: combination of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and computer vision, the robots to pick or sort recycled waste materials
  • waste picking and sorting robots.
• For dealing with broken road:
  • Identifying and reporting of potholes by people via app.
  • Construction of road with fly-ash bricks.
  • Satellite and GPS can be used to check the status of road and the progress of the road construction.
  • The non-degradable waste collected and segregated by scientific method can be used in road constructions.
  • Automated and robotics-based techniques are currently used in a limited extent in road construction. It can reduce the costs for road construction, inspection, and maintenance.
  • Road surface monitoring is a key factor to providing smooth and safe road infrastructure to road users. The key to road surface condition monitoring is to detect road surface anomalies, such as potholes, cracks, and bumps, which affect driving comfort and on-road safety.
• For dealing with chaotic traffic:
  • Google map shows the alternative routes to avoid the chaotic traffic.
  • CCTV camera to identify the vehicle number of chaotic drivers and the rule breakers.
  • Adaptive signal control technology adjusts the timing of red, yellow and green lights to accommodate changing traffic patterns and ease traffic congestion.
  • Traffic police in some cities (e.g. Bangalore) uses socia media platforms to update the traffic situations in different areas.
  • The traffic police uses e-chalan machine, a hand-held device, to book road rule violators and issue e-challans.
  • Intelligent traffic lights are a vehicle traffic control system that combines traditional traffic lights with an array of sensors and artificial intelligence to intelligently route vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
  • Data analytics can be used to predict the traffic situation of an area at specific time.
  • Sensor system can also be used for traffic data collection.
  • Looking at the viability of the driverless cars. It may minimize the problem of rash driving.
  • Bridge construction technologies can also be used to minimise the chaotic traffic.

Last year (in 2019), Bihar’s first solid waste processing site, which will convert organic waste into compost fertiliser, was inaugurated in Muzaffarpur district. The new Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 2016. is also being applied.
The government in Bihar is committed to improve the road netwrok. The length of single-lane roads has come down from 9110.87km in 2005 to 7437.13km now. The single-lane roads have been widened. The total length of double-lane roads, on the other hand, has gone up from 160.61km in 2005 to 4359.99km in 2019. The state has 300.17km of multiple-lane roads now comparing to just 91.74km in 2005. The government has targeted to reduce the travel time from any part in the state to Patna to five hours from the current six hours. The planned Metro projects will give further boost to achieve the targets of traffic free movements.