Sushant Mehta, who runs a flatwater kayaking club in Udupi district of Karnataka, regularly traverses through the Shambhavi River. He spends his days exploring mangroves and spotting birds in the backwaters of the river. But in the last few months, Sushant has been worried about the increasing amount of waste he was observing in the river.
"For some time after the monsoon, we used to observe waste like plastic in the river. If we went kayaking in the morning, we saw that in some places, the river had a layer of dirt," Sushant told TNM.
Alarmed by this, Sushant's kayaking club 'Kayakboy' organised a river clean-up project in October 2020, during which they collected over 500 kg of trash in the Shambhavi river.
But a month ago, a few local fishermen reported that it was not just households along the river who were dumping waste. When Sushant and others pursued this, they found that a large amount of waste—almost a truckload a day-- was illegally dumped at a spot in Thaggumane, a village on the banks of the river near Hejamadi in Udupi. "It was not just plastic waste but also semi-solid waste which was turning the water black and attracting many birds there," Sushant said.
The issue was reported to the Padubidri Gram Panchayat. It then emerged that the waste management of around 6,500 households in the Panchayat was outsourced to a contractor named Bhujanga Shetty through a tender process. This was because the Panchayat did not have enough space to manage the waste. Bhujanga Shetty is paid around Rs 5 lakh per annum by the Panchayat for the waste disposal.
"The contractor was segregating the waste and dealing with it in a scientific manner in some places but in this particular area near Hejamadi, where there are 500-1000 households, he picked up unsegregated waste and dumped it in a private place. I was aghast to observe this," said Udupi Chief Executive Officer Dr Naveen Bhat.
The officer visited the spot where the waste was dumped on January 16. He said that Bhujanga Shetty was asked to remove the waste dumped there scientifically or risk the cancellation of his tender.
"We have asked him to give it in writing that the waste dumped near the river in Hejamadi should be removed. The organic waste should be converted into a compost pit and the dry waste should be segregated and disposed of in a scientific manner. Failing this, the tender will be cancelled," Dr Naveen said.
The contractor has been given three days to clear the waste or face action from the Gram Panchayat.
"We have also informed the Panchayat officer to hold training sessions with households in this area, to segregate the waste and ensure that the contractor collects only the segregated waste," Dr Naveen added.
Sushant hopes that this will resolve the issue of waste polluting the Shambhavi river, and said that he will follow up with the Gram Panchayat about disposing of the waste dumped near Hejamadi.