Kulithalai, a growing town of 32,000 people, sits beside the Kaveri river, a green oasis on Tamil Nadu’s dusty plains. Pilgrims travel miles to visit its Ayyarmalai and Kadambaneswar temples, and shoppers arrive to buy fresh jasmine and beetle leaves.

Famous for its lush banana groves, the town is laced with irrigation channels and drains. They serve the farms that stretch southwards from the river and help flush human waste away from the urban area.

But as settlements built up around Kulithalai, the amount of waste in the environment increased – a problem all too common throughout India. Until recently there was no effective rubbish collection in the municipality. Litter strewn on roads and in fields blocked water channels, leading to spiralling environmental problems.

Vijay Anand of local NGO ExNoRa explains: ‘People were throwing garbage on the ground. It clogged the drains and the water stagnated. Once it stagnated, lots of mosquitoes started breeding. People were getting bitten. It was a huge problem.

‘Before, the channels were running properly, but they became contaminated with solid and liquid waste. Kulithalai used to be famous for bananas. Suddenly it was famous for mosquitoes.’

The chairman of Kulithalai Municipal Council, Thiru A Amuthavel, wanted to deal with the root cause of the problem. He approached ExNoRa, which is active in solid waste management elsewhere in southern India, and requested it take on a municipal contract.

The charity refused. Its policy, it said, was to build local capacity, helping urban bodies like the council manage these issues themselves.

Instead the council employed ExNoRa staff as consultants, and together they assessed the town’s systems and problems and started to identify appropriate solutions.

For ExNoRa, Kulithalai was an ideal opportunity to work with established bodies: ‘We have to target the right people,’ says programme co-ordinator Vijay Anand. ‘We must deal with people who can decide. If the right person is convinced, we give him a lot of exposure to different things and this exposure gives him confidence.

‘It’s a model learning experience for us. Mr Amuthavel is a practical person, but others have to be interested. The council comprises 24 people. We had a meeting for them, and offered them the same insights.’

Mr Amuthavel, a commerce graduate, became Tamil Nadu’s youngest ever municipal chairman in 2006, aged 29. Now, at the age of 33, he continues to represent ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) as chair of Kulithalai Municipality.

‘I want to clean up politics, and the environment,’ he says. ‘If you have political will, you can.’

Independently, and with ExNoRa’s support, he studied solid waste management and public health, often focusing on biological solutions. He shared his conclusions with his fellow councillors and they agreed to invest municipal funds in a radical two-year solid waste management programme, and to renew funding if the programme proved a success.

In 2009 Kulithalai began a new chapter. Municipal staff removed all litter bins from the streets and began collecting rubbish from each household, daily.

‘We don’t give an opportunity for people to throw garbage on the road,’ says Mr Amuthvelu.

They contacted residents in batches to show them the benefits of the new system and teach them how to segregate rubbish. They went into schools and spoke to students and teachers, and met with traders, doctors and other health workers, discussing with them how solid waste management could help prevent illness.

The 28 municipal staff who implement the programme were renamed ‘street beautifiers,’ given a pay rise and offered financial incentives for segregating useful material. ‘We trained them, convinced them and gave them dreams,’ says Mr Amuthavel. ‘In some quarters it was controversial.’

Kulithalai street beautifiers are traditionally from the Adi Andhra scheduled tribe, which originates from Andhra Pradesh. The team sees improving solid waste management as an opportunity to improve working conditions and respect for this scheduled caste, members of which were once considered ‘untouchable.’

The team appointed local women to monitor waste collection. These ‘link volunteers’ score each household according to how well they segregate biodegradable and non- biodegradable waste. Their records show that less than 20 per cent of residents sort their rubbish effectively; not an unexpected starting point for a town new to source-segregation.

National Service Scheme (NSS)students help educate residents, using data collected by link volunteers to identify homes that need extra help.

Segregated waste is deposited at collection points. Here street beautifiers separate plastic, paper and other recyclables and bag them.

Cows consume some biodegradable waste, and recyclables are taken to the municipal office to be weighed, recorded, and sorted into saleable and non-saleable material. Saleable material is baled, stored and sold to a scrap merchant.

The remaining biodegradable waste is diverted to compost, which is sold for Rs.3,000/- per tonne. At Kulithalai’s compost yard, the municipality is experimenting with different methods of vermicomposting, along with tree planting.

After nine months of daily collections and vigorous campaigning, the water in Kulithalai started flowing again. Waste management had become cost-effective, thanks to income from sales of compost and recyclables. Segregation, recycling and vermicomposting had replaced dumping and burning.

Streets and drains are now free of litter, and Kulithalai Municipal Council is providing solid waste services in compliance with the Indian government’s Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.

‘It’s not a project, it’s a programme,’ says Mr Anand. ‘It’s open-ended, there’s no timeline. ‘Behaviour change should go with infrastructure development, and residents should be informed in a way that they understand. We’ve established good systems.’

Building on their partnership, the team has diversified into liquid waste management. The council has retained ExNoRa programme staff as solid waste consultants, and included liquid waste in their brief.

They began by studying sanitary systems using sanitation mapping software, with support from municipal funds. Their research showed that Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Solutions(DEWATS), as developed by the Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA) and others, could solve many of the town’s problems. This technical approach aims to provide state-of-the-art-technology at affordable prices, using locally available materials. Applications are low-maintenance, as most important parts of these systems work without technical energy inputs.

Kulithalai is currently at the pilot stage in implementing DEWATS. The partnership has established a range of low-cost waste water treatment systems and is welcoming new and creative solutions.

One simple demonstration project provides 42 houses with a collection pipe, diverting sewage from an open 1.5 metre-wide irrigation canal. The150 metre-long pipe collects waste water, which flows into a ‘root zone,’ an area of constructed wetlands.

Mr Amathavel paid for the pipeline with his personal funds, to the tune of Rs.22,000/-. He admits that, as well as helping clean up the environment, it provides welcome political mileage.

At his home, he is demonstrating another DEWATS system, employing microbial technology in a series of chambers attached to his toilet. Again he is using his own funds.

The programme also provides opportunities for commercial and non- profit organisations to invest in the town which, Mr Amuthavel says, encourages new ideas and spreads the cost of programme development.

For example, international voluntary organisation the Auroville Centre for Scientific Research is designing a vortex system on low lying land in Kulithalai. It employs microbial technology in waste water, which flows quickly through a series of not only functional, but architecturally attractive, chambers.

‘We have plenty of water,’ says Mr Anand. ‘We have enough resources. It’s how we use them. India’s problem s mismanagement of resources. On average, 21 per cent of sewage is treated, and 79 per cent is getting into water.

In Kulithalai, the emphasis is on appropriate technology. The partnership’s approach characterises city sanitation as a big cake consisting of lots of small problems.

By combining waste collection, recycling, pipes and drains, constructed wetlands, vortex systems, microbial additives and other technologies, the team believes it can solve all Kulithalai’s waste and sanitation problems, one by one.

ExNoRa is now working with Pudukottai, Sirkali, Rasipuram, Thanjavur and Perambalur councils, with the aim of replicating the Kulithalai model.

If you bring the building blocks together you can see the whole picture,says Mr Anand. ‘For every problem there’s a solution. Our job is to make people aware of their options and encourage them solve their own problems.

Practical leadership with the power and will to do it is important. Pilots help people believe it’s possible and then they start co-operating. A holistic approach takes into account wider issues.

Mr Amuthavel adds: India needs more young politicians who think progressively for the benefit of the people. These solutions are replicable and adaptable. Kulithalai’s approach can give people the confidence to implement appropriate solutions in their areas.

The NGO approach is wrong,’ says Mr Anand. We work with the government. It may be a little slow initially but they can do it effectively because they have massive reach. If we join hands with the government and synergise our efforts we can reach 100 million people.’

> municipality.tn.gov.in/kulithalai
> exnora.org
> exnora.in
> cddindia.org
> borda-net.org

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