Health and environment go hand-in-hand

The health of the people and the environment of the place where the people are living, are always directly connected. This basically means that when the environmental conditions are bad, so are the health conditions. This is what has been happening to Bangalore for the past few years. Environmental conditions do not only include the scenic beauty of the area. Instead, it focuses on the quality of the environment which is affected by various factors. In Bangalore, the main factor that is contributing to the degenerating environmental conditions is the huge mounds of garbage that are carelessly disposed of wherever a free spot is found. From disposing off garbage in landfills, we have now moved to water bodies. And because of this, the health of the people is getting affected too. People are falling ill a lot more often due to the presence of water borne viruses that arise from the polluted water bodies. Another extremely important contributor to the adverse environmental impact of health is the disposal of plastic. We all know that it contains chemical like lead, copper and many others. As a result of its inefficient disposal, the health of the people is severely affected through various illnesses and conditions like lead poisoning.

We have reached the stage where just being aware of our current situation is not the solution anymore. We, the common people of Bangalore need to take up the initiative and take action against the rising garbage disposal issue. All we need to do is take simple steps like completely avoid the use of plastic and replace them with cloth bags instead. And as mentioned previously, we can also start segregating waste at the household level. This makes the job of disposing garbage a whole lot easier for the pourakarmikas and motivates the government to help the citizens themselves. So, stand up Bangalore and take the matter into your own hands!

The pourakarmikas plight

Another point that we must focus on is the people who are responsible for the collection of waste and keeping the city clean – the pourakarmikas. The president of BBMP Contract Pourakarmikas’ Association said, “Waste management: it’s not about technology, it’s about people”. These people are underpaid, overworked and not provided with any protective material with which they can collect the garbage and thus their health is seriously affected. the least we can do to help them out is segregate the waste at the household level which has been the plan all along. All that is needed is its effective implementation.

Bangalore – Garden city??

The city of Bangalore was always known for its spectacular view because of the greenery. For the past few years, it has been losing its greenery which has been getting replaced with mountains of garbage. Our city generates more than 4500 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis and most of it is dumped in the landfills that are present in the outskirts of the city. Though this was an effective solution at the time, it wasn’t a permanent one. In addition, the amount of garbage has been increasing from one day to the next and we are running out of land to dump it on or bury it under. And as a result, people have begun dumping it on the streets or any free spot of land that they can find. What can be done? What are the various solutions that can be implemented by the common man to contribute towards the ending of this colossal mess? This is one of the areas that I hope to discuss in the future.