3.0 Field Study (Garia, Kolkata)
The study has been carried out in a small locality of Garia where open dumping and land filling is a common
practice. In some areas the services provided are satisfactory. Every day roads are swept and waste is collected at a
particular time slot starting from morning 7.30-9.00am. Sweepers are provided with the handcarts or tricycles,
scrappers and brooms to clean the roads and lanes properly, to clean the open drains, to collect the waste and load it
into the carts provided and then transfer them to the primary collection points called the vats which are situated in
different locality. The handcarts on an average have a capacity of 2-3 m3
. Roads are first swept before proceeding
for collection of household wastes (Figure 1b). The waste is collected by sweepers going from house-to-house and
collecting the waste which the residents have collected in the dustbins (Figure 1a). This house-to-house collection is
done from all the residents. Earlier the bins were placed at different places, but the residents used to throw waste
outside those bins instead of inside which created unsanitary conditions around the bin locations.