In India, turning to smartphones, apps to rid streets of garbage
IF YOU were concerned about garbage on your street in India, here’s what you might do: Snap a photo of the trash on your cellphone, then send it via WhatsApp to the smartphone of the garbage police.
Khaki-clad officers would rush over to order a cleanup. City officials would fine the offender, and maybe reward you, too.
That’s an ideal scenario; still, what’s happening on the ground is real.
Some of India’s major municipalities are establishing anti-garbage programmes using smartphone technology to try to vanquish India’s Sisyphean waste and litter problems.
“Technology-driven initiatives such as this WhatsApp helpline can help build a bridge between the city authorities and the citizens,” said Babasaheb Rajale, who was deputy municipal commissioner in charge of solid waste management at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corp. and had five officers fielding WhatsApp complaints before moving to another government role last month. “It gives a touch point to citizens to reach us directly.”
On the beaches of Goa, in neighbourhoods in New Delhi and on the streets of northeastern Bihar state’s capital, Patna, municipal officials are also taking in WhatsApp complaints from conscientious citizens.
“Without citizen participation, these problems can’t be solved,” said Arindam Guha, Kolkatabased partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt., who points to social media as a way to bolster resources. “Our cities are very large and most municipalities are shortstaffed.” The Delhi state government launched an app called Swachh Delhi (“Clean Delhi”) in November for people to upload photos of illegally dumped garbage.
Another Delhi government department is seeking WhatsApp reports to stop people from burning waste to keep warm in the winter, worsening air quality in a city with already the world’s worst air pollution.
In Bihar, the state government is trying to clean up Patnaranked among the dirtiest Indian cities in a 2016 countrywide government survey-with an Apna Patna, or My Patna, app that allows citizens to report violations including litter, broken street lights, flooding, dead animals and illegal construction.
The progress of each complaint can be tracked online.
Goa, where beaches draws tourists world-wide, runs its WhatsApp line for beachgoers to report offenses against its otherwise pristine environs. The helpline gets as many as six alerts in a week, Sanjeev C. Gauns Dessai, Goa’s tourism director, said in an e-mail.
The Navi Mumbai’s WhatsApp initiative follows the success of a similar experiment with debris-dumping squads, which the city had started in October and which halved illegal dumping after it started in October.
Two Nuisance Detection Squad vehicles enforce nolittering statutes from 6am to 10pm and respond to WhatsApp tips-more than 300 since the programme’s start in January.
Violators can be fined 100 rupees (RM6) on first offence and 250 rupees thereafter, though the culprits can’t always be found, Rajale said.
Two other vehicles, called Flying Debris Squads, patrol Navi Mumbai precincts around the clock to catch truckers, mostly from the construction industry, dumping debris either without a permit or in nonpermitted areas.
Citizens can receive a 1,000 rupee cash prize each time they report violators, according to Ankush Chavan, a senior official at the city agency.
Violators face confiscation of the truck unless they pay a fine of as much as 30,000 rupees. —
Technology-driven initiatives such as this WhatsApp helpline can help build a bridge between the city authorities and the citizens. Babasaheb Rajale, who was deputy municipal commissioner in charge of solid waste management at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corp.