Children try to find solutions for a clean Bangalore

Children try to find solutions for a clean Bangalore

The Hindu

Mahila Mandali, Crescent School among participants at civic exhibition

BANGALORE: At the ongoing civic exhibitions organised by Bala Janaagraha, children of participating schools are united in their message, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse".

These little champions have been poring over solutions for cleaner neighbourhoods, and a cleaner city through the Civic Project. This year's theme is "Solid Waste Management".

Children have been busy exploring various aspects of the topic with the help of their teachers and community volunteers. The learning from this project work is showcased during the civic exhibitions.

On Saturday, one such exhibition was held at Crescent School in Basavanagudi. The participating schools included Mahila Mandali, Mahila Seva Samaj, Crescent School, Parikrama and East West School. These schools are all situated in wards 49, 50 and 51, respectively. Students displayed their models along with posters and project reports. They were judged on the basis of the material used, their creativity and their knowledge about the topic.

Students of Mahila Mandali focussed on the pourakarmikas. The emphasis of their project clearly highlighted their concern for these workers who face serious health hazards due to exposure to unhygienic environment. They felt that the Government should ensure that the garbage should be collected in a more systematic manner so as to make it easier for the pourakarmikas.

Parikrama's projects dealt with solid waste management in hospitals, choultries, and hotels. They stressed the importance of proper disposal of bio-medical waste generated in the hospitals. The extra effort put in by the students to actually visit these places and obtain facts and figures was inspiring.

Crescent School focussed on solid waste management in market places, hospitals, hotels, schools, and households. Their model of the market place was particularly appreciated as it provided clear solutions towards garbage reduction.

Mahila Seva Samaj School used its creativity to demonstrate the different stages of waste management; it also created interesting objects such as telescopes, pen stands, toy drums and rockets, decorative wall hangings and paper mache bowls. All these objects were made out of recycled materials such as coconut shells, gift-wrapping paper, plastic bottles and ice cream sticks.

Chief guest Vivek Mansingh, chief executive officer of Dell, who attended the event, advised the children to focus on their goals and believe in honesty as this would make them better citizens and ensure them success.

Segregation

Earlier, three teams from Cluny Convent, Malleswaram, had worked on the project called "Segregation of waste as an effective solution for managing Bangalore's Solid Waste". They identified the following as the biggest challenges to waste management: Garbage not collected every day because of huge volumes, and dumpsite getting overloaded with material, which could be recycled and reused.

They suggested that solution lay in segregation and recycling and reusing. "It is not only the authorities but also our responsibility to keep our city clean and healthy" was the view of the students of Cluny Convent. In a survey, the Cluny Convent students sought opinion from over 100 people on issues related to segregation. The results: Segregation was practised only by 29 per cent of the respondents although 94 per cent believed that segregation was necessary. Eighteen per cent of the respondents had wet waste compost at home.

Recyling

The project by Sri Vidya Mandir School was on recycling. Children, during the course of the research, identified the addresses of organisations in Malleswaram that purchase waste material, including pet bottles.