The environment ministry has launched a web-based application — Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) to help in tracking the ‘movement and management’ of hazardous and other solid wastes.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar launched the website www.iwms.nic.in and said this would help them monitor total 43,000 industries responsible for producing hazardous waste.
“With this we can track all the hazardous waste and other solid waste. It will also become a single window for authorization and provide state and nation-wide data on waste generation and number of waste generating and processing industrial units. There are over 43,000 industrial units producing hazardous waste, like the waste generated while producing nickel. Out of these, 30,000 had already been mapped using this application and other will be mapped soon,” Javadekar said.
The data obtained will help the authorities to identify the problem areas of waste management and plan accordingly. The portal will generate data on different categories of waste including hazardous, bio-medical, electronic, plastic and municipal waste. It will also facilitate people in obtaining permission for import and export of certain categories of waste for reuse, recycling, recovery or co-processing and conserve the primary source.
The ministry official stated that it aims to track the waste producing industry using Geographic Information System (GIS) maps for effective monitoring and, if required, to inspect their waste management or processing mechanism. It will provide information regarding number authorizations or consent orders granted by the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). The single window access will also help in bridging the gap between industries and other waste generators, recyclers, operators of disposal facilities, SPCBs, CPCB(Central Pollution Control Board), municipalities and the concerned ministries for environmentally sound waste management.
The good news is that it also aims at implementing the concept of a paperless and green office. It will help the ministry in creating a database on waste generating and processing industrial units under construction, or operation by consolidating the information regarding consent to establish, consent to operate and authorization, import and export permission. It will also help in generating database on different categories of wastes generated. It will bring more transparency in the functioning of the Ministry and other State Authorities.
A great step towards environment conservation and now it looks like we are genuinely moving closer to being sincere sentinels of our legacy.
