Minister Dinesh Prasad Goala (left) receives a memento at the seminar on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections

June 16: If a research scholar from IIT Guwahati is to be believed, only 8.9 per cent of city residents are responsible for making the city dirty.

Speaking at a seminar on Sustainable Solid Waste Management held today, Daisy Dey, a research scholar at the institute, said a study recently found that only 8.9 per cent of the citizens are responsible for littering garbage in public places.

The study found that 31.4 per cent of the population disposes garbage in regularly cleared public dustbins, 25 per cent in irregularly cleared public dustbins, 32.3 per cent in the backyard of their houses or by burning the wastes while the rest 2.4 per cent through private agencies.

Dey was part of a case study conducted by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation on the Willingness to Pay for Solid Waste Management in the City of Guwahati a few months ago.

“While carrying out the case study, we studied the solid waste disposal habits of the residents. It was during that survey that the above-mentioned facts came to light,” Dey said.

The study was commissioned by the GMC to estimate the percentage of residents who are willing to pay for door-to-door solid waste collection service if provided. The survey revealed that 82.2 per cent of the residents are willing to pay for the garbage pick-up service.

Dey suggested that putting up more dustbins, creating public awareness for proper disposal of solid waste, introducing door-to-door waste collection and setting up of vermi-composting facilities in every ward would help keep the city clean.

“I feel that setting up of vermi-composting facilities will be highly useful because a greater part of the solid waste generated in the city is organic in nature which can be effectively managed through vermi-composting.”

Urban development minister Dinesh Prasad Goala attended the seminar jointly organised by the Global Forum for Disaster Reduction and New Media.

Goala said chief minister Tarun Gogoi has announced a scheme under the Assam Bikash Yojana to “provide modern scientific machinery for garbage disposal to all the municipalities and town committees of Assam”.

He added that the government had prepared proposals to develop landfill sites in Jorhat and Silchar towns.

President of Environ, an NGO, Amarjyoti Kashyap, gave a presentation on plastic waste management at the seminar, where he emphasised on recycling plastic wastes to resolve the problems being faced by the corporation.