Urban bodies may take 1 yr to frame bylaws for implementing SWM Rules

New Delhi: The recently notified Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 are likely to take at least a year for full-fledged implementation, as urban local bodies will need time to frame and notify their bylaws.Officials noted a similar delay after the notification of the SWM Rules 2016, when civic agencies took nearly two years to finalise bylaws specifying procedures for implementation, user obligations and penalties for violations before getting them notified by Delhi govt.A meeting was convened by Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change with urban local bodies on Wednesday to review preparedness and timelines for implementation of the rules, in compliance with directions issued by Supreme Court.“The 2026 bylaws will be framed keeping in view geographical and local conditions of respective areas. Urban local bodies have been directed to strictly adhere to the 54-point agenda specified under the rules in a time-bound manner,” a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official said.“In our submission, we informed that several measures have been implemented or are in the process of being enforced. For example, projections of waste generation in Delhi — estimated at 15,292 metric tonnes by 2028 — have already been prepared. Work is also underway on ward-wise collection plans, including special-care waste, transportation plans and mapping of solid waste management infrastructure,” the official added.MCD has engaged IIT-Delhi to assess the nature and quality of waste generated across the city, including in affluent colonies and unauthorised settlements, and study changes in waste generation patterns over time.Officials said the institute will undertake GIS-based inventorisation and mapping of waste generation, collect data on bulk waste generators through surveys and secondary sources, assess infrastructure gaps, identify vulnerable garbage points and recommend suitable waste collection and processing systems.In addition, IIT will design frameworks for third-party audits of bulk waste generators and decentralised processing facilities.On May 11, MCD asked all deputy commissioners to use authorised vehicles for waste transportation, identify high-footfall garbage-prone areas for deployment of swachhta marshals, implement twice a day sweeping and deploy additional manpower.The order issued in compliance with the SC directions on May 5 stressed the establishment of reduce, reuse, recycle centres in neighbourhoods in addition to a survey of closed dhalaos. The compliance report is to be submitted by May 20.Among other provisions under the new SWM Rules, district magistrates or deputy commissioners have been tasked with facilitating identification and allocation of land for solid waste processing and disposal facilities.“During Wednesday’s meeting, urban local bodies were asked to complete geo-tagging of all bulk waste generators, mapping of material recovery facilities by Oct 31 and uploading of bio-mining data on the central portal. However, there is no clarity on enforcement of user charges on waste generators, despite earlier SWM Rules also making it mandatory,” the officials said, adding that source segregation is important to achieve results.Meanwhile, though the rules mandate Central Pollution Control Board to establish and operate an online system for filing details of bulk waste generators, the platform is yet to become operational. “While MCD has uploaded details of the generators on the ‘311’ app, we are waiting for the centralised system to be functional,” one of the officials said.