Media Release

Mangaluru, Oct 22: City-based environmental NGO Anti Pollution Drive Foundation (APDF) entered into an agreement with Bengaluru based Hasiru Dala for initiating a long term project for decontaminating the two lifelines here, namely River Netravathi and River Gurupura.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together for the project was signed by Nalini Shekar, co-founder and executive director of Hasiru Dala and Abdullah A Rehman, APD founder chief on October 4. Prior to this, Nalini Shekar and her team visited Mangaluru and along with APD team undertook a field survey of both the rivers by motorboat.

“Hasiru Dala has extensive expertise in efficient solid waste management in several cities of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. By bringing them to Mangaluru, our city shall benefit from a time-tested and streamlined model of solid waste management,” said Abdullah A Rehman.

Initiated in 2010, Hasiru Dala is a social impact organization, which along with waste management also strives for the upliftment of wastepickers. It is presently active in six major cities. The APD team and Hasiru Dala team have been working on this collaboration for the last three months. The next stage of this collaboration is to make a scientific study and an action plan for implementation within three months.

“Hasiru Dala believes that wastepickers are the first line of defence to avoid plastic reaching our waters. Bringing recognition to their contribution to solid waste management of the city creates space formally in the local urban waste management system to facilitate predictable income for wastepickers and other informal workers in the waste sector,” said Nalini Shekar.

APD Foundation is a non-profit organization working to improve public health through environmental conservation activities. Its focus areas are air pollution, solid waste management and sanitation. APDF was set up on October 2 to coincide with the Swachh Bharath initiative. It initially began as a Facebook page and in 2015 registered as an NGO, APD works in research, data-mining, behavioural change and advocacy.

Background and details

Water bodies of Mangaluru are the pride of Dakshina Kannada. The Gurupura and Netravathi rivers are two legendary rivers which have historically contributed to the economy of the land and created countless livelihood.

Today, the rivers have become carriers of pollution and contamination discharge to the Arabian Sea. While chemical pollution in the rivers has many sources, one of the sources contributed by every citizen directly or indirectly in Mangaluru is the discharge of solid waste, both bio-degradable like kitchen waste, animal waste etc and non-bio degradable waste like plastic, cloth, metal etc. Plastic in ocean today is considered as a global crisis. At the present rate of pollution it is expected that plastic will outnumber the fish by 2050.

Solid waste management in the water is a result of poor solid waste management practice, citizen’s ignorance, negligence and bad practices. It has a great potential of change with the active participation of the citizens.

There is need for urgent action to take on responsibility and to avoid plastics in the ocean. Hence APDF and Hasiru Dala have come together to launch this initiative to address this issue in collaboration with citizens, government and elected representatives.

As a joint effort, Hasiru Dala and APDF have identified leakage points in and around 30 kilometre of Mangaluru and will address the pollution of water due to solid waste management. The other main reason is also a poorly organized informal waste economy that supports recycling industry in and around Mangaluru. Hence efforts will be made to streamline the informal waste economy with the help of wastepickers.

Some of the initial strategy includes:
• Awareness campaign in collaboration with the citizens of Mangaluru
• Work with MCC and other urban local bodies for better waste segregation in those wards which are responsible for polluting the rivers
• Organise and professionalize wastepickers and other waste workers services; create opportunity for wastepickers to become waste entrepreneurs
• Campaign and cleaning up of water bodies

Citizens are requested to participate and collaborate in this huge endeavour and bring back the pride of Gurupura and Netravathi. Support is sought from elected representatives and support of MMC and Ullal municipality.

Contact APDF office:

Phone: 0824-4267008
Email: office@antipollution.org