Residents of Okharpauwa in Nuwakot district Sunday obstructed dumping of garbage at the landfill site in the west-north of the capital. The locals picketed around 18 trucks heading from the capital carrying waste at Kauti VDC, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) said. KMC began to pick up the wastes--accumulated for the last one week--from today after the heaps of garbage started to give off awful smell in the city. KMC Chief Dinesh Thapaliya said that the garbage dumping was obstructed by different people with various demands.

Aasha Khosa / New Delhi ACC uses cow dung, old shampoo, soap, paint sludge and even municipal waste in five plants. Cow dung, old shampoo, soap, paint sludge and even municipal waste are fed into furnaces that burn lime into cement at the plants of India's leading cement manufacturer, ACC. ACC ,which recently won the Golden Peacock award set up by the UK-based World Environment Foundation, for eco-innovation has procured more than 200,000 tonnes of waste including some hazardous ones to make cement.

If the avowed objective of the proposal to cap the Sonsodo garbage dumpyard with tarpaulin was to arrest seepage of rain water into the waste, tonnes of waste continues to be exposed to rains at the site till date. For, the Margao Civic body is still in the process of opening up the tender and issuing work orders to cap the waste with tarpaulin sheets, notwithstanding that the 35,000 tonnes of waste is already soaked with rain water. It is learnt that the delay was caused due to lack of interest shown by JCB machine operators by staying away from the tender.

* Air pollution in India causes 5,27,700 deaths every year (WHO) * 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to polluted water. In India, diarrhoea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily (WHO) * Only 22% of the wastewater generated in urban India is treated, severely polluting rivers. The total wastewater from Delhi and nearby areas flowing into the 19 drains that connect to the Yamuna is around 3,296 million litres a day, of which 630 MLD is untreated.

With the support of community participation, Environ, a city-based environmental NGO, is planning to make the recycling of plastic more productive in terms of employment generation and pollution control. Plastic waste, often occupying a considerable space in any household, and also a prime cause of flash flood in the city, can now even help

Admitting that garbage was a major issue and was causing immense damage to the environment, Power and Environment Minister, Aleixo Sequeira said the issue could be solved with people's participation. Speaking at a debate titled

A half-day workshop on "Facilitating Door to Door Collection of Segregated Waste' was conducted at Hotel Woodlands, Margao on Thursday, to coincide with "World Environment Day' by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Western Regional Centre in Goa. The interactive workshop was designed to sensitize members of Margao Municipal Council to develop a strategy for door-to-door collection of segregated waste in Margao. The workshop was attended the councilors and the staff associated with waste management.

The Eastern Assam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EACCI) has said that the ban of plastics by the district administration goes against the government policy. The body mentioned this while objecting to the prohibitory order on the manufacture, sale and use of plastic carry bags within the district. While recognizing the menace caused by the disposal of these bags, it laid the blame on the inefficiency of the municipality and lack of civic sense among the people.

The solid waste collection work carried out by private firms will now be monitored by officials to check their efficiency. The long tussle between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and DWM, a private company which collects and dumps garbage from three zones of the city, will be sorted out by the installation of a tower which will monitor the work of garbage disposal by DWM.

Problem of recharging ground water should be taken up seriously: Governor Artificial rain water harvesting system to be adopted Plastic carry-bags be used for carpeting of the roads Haryana Governor A. R. Kidwai and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Tuesday that problems like bio-medical waste, waste water and air pollution should be properly addressed and relevant laws strictly enforced to keep Haryana environmentally clean and healthy.