The Hindu Business Line : Bengal to set up mission on solid waste management

THE West Bengal Government has decided to set up a new mission on solid waste management in the State, essentially to look at common facilities, which can be developed at the municipal level.

Stressing on the need to attract investments, which would make such projects commercially viable, Mr Asim Burman, Principal Secretary, Environment, Government of West Bengal, today said that such waste management projects were amenable for conversion into a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project, under which solid wastes can be converted into energy.

Addressing a workshop on "CDM: Opportunities and benefits", organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here, he said the State PCB was now adopting a facilitatory role and not a regulatory one.

The ICC workshop is expected to serve as a platform to initiate CDM projects in the State and beyond, sparked by the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, which came into effect on February 16, 2005. CDM was established under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol as a way of promoting sustainable development while minimizing the costs of limiting greenhouse gas emissions, identified as the major cause of climate change.

Lamenting that Bengal has not been able to pose any project so far to the CDM Executive Board, Mr Burman said the State Pollution Control Board has chalked out new initiatives to bridge this so called resources-knowledge gap. A task force has been set up by the State government to examine the environmental sustainability by producers/manufacturing units in the State, he pointed out.

The Task Force is also working jointly on studies by IITs and other institutions in the State. He felt the knowledge gaps that exist should be plugged, especially with funding institutions, if eastern region has to move ahead on CDM projects.

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