Aurangabad: Efforts by NGOs that have been hired by the civic body to sensitise citizens on segregating waste seem to have failed to produce much results as the dump points in the city continue to grow.In Monday’s meeting, the NGOs were asked to table reports of their performance and impact in two-three days.The civic body is, however, optimistic that the NGOs will bring about a change. Mayor Nandkumar Ghodele said that it is only 15 days since the NGOs started working and that they should be given more time.Incidentally, after the residents failed to comply with the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 for giving segregated waste to the AMC workers, the nine zones of the city were given an officer of special duty (OSD) each by the state government in March.The OSDs were selected for the special duty considering their works in their respective councils in the area of solid waste management.The OSDs worked with the zone-level coordinators and the sanitation staff of the municipal corporation to design the decentralised waste management and spearhead information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns in their respective zones.The teams conducted streetplays, distributed handbills, pasted stickers and put up banners informing residents about different waste categories and segregation. After a month, when the OSDs returned to their respective jobs, the campaign took a hit and the segregation started to drop, leading to an increase in mixed waste.Subsequently, municipal commissioner Nipun Vinayak appointed three agencies for the job to increase public participation in waste management. Around 15-20 days ago, Feedback Foundation (zone 1,2 &4), Knowledge Link (zone 3,5&7) and Action for Better Living & Environment (zone 8 & 9) started to work in that area.

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