My Environmental Endeavour

Lassitude of a few create lachrymose for common public. Here I will give a brief on the background and the actions we took to curtail the problem. The issue we call as NIMBY Syndrome – the attitude of   people to through waste and debris in the public place, a habit of Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY). This creates menace for public, burden for government and issue for environment.

To find a solution we conducted a participatory planning process that came out with a slogan ‘NIMBY to IMBY’. IMBY (In My Back Yard) – decentralized waste management; collection, segregation and decomposition at the source itself. Organized ward level awareness programs to raise environmental consciousness among households, arranged seminars and exhibitions in all nearby schools and provided training program and exhibition on waste treatment plants and on organic farming. Fortunately we received strong support from the nearby medical college for awareness program and active participation of Environmental Club volunteers to organize road shows. 3hrs a week radio program ‘My City Clean City’ was highly effective to propagate the idea of IMBY. 

Department of agriculture offered assistance to start organic farming in schools and in the houses of students, also LSG came out with a plan to provide 75% subsidy for home based waste treatment. The low cost ‘soak pit pipen’ we invented to manage waste at the source now a practice in many houses. Awareness as well as action created a paradigm shift in the society. Many organizations sprouted to initiate awareness and the business community decided to shift to eco friendly bags. Within one year, LSG declared their territory a plastic free and pan free area. Now the people in our area say “waste is wealth”

Among these, we found a tremendous impact in the Green School project we initiated in schools.