MANUAL CLEANSING OF STREET AND PUBLIC PLACES
A street normally comprises three distinct paved surfaces: a highway for motor traffic, and footway on both sides for pedestrians. The footways are slightly elevated and are separated from the highway by a kerb and channel. The channel is the lowe st part of the road structure and serves as a drainage channel during rainfall; at regular intervals it is provided with outlets for the surface water to the main drainage system.
It is rarely necessary to sweep the surface of the highway because motor traffic creates a turbulence, which carries dust and litter away from the crown of the road and concentrates it in the channels at the sides. Thus, street sweeping usually has two components: footways and channels.
Footway wastes are mainly light litter and a little dust; in the channels the proportion of dust and heavy wastes is usually greater. Therefore, the tasks tend to be different. Footways are large areas with a low concentration of wastes; channels are narrow strips with a high concentration of wastes, which tend to be
heavy.
Although these principles apply to most streets of a city, the amount of wastes generated varies in proportion to the level of human activity; thus the necessary frequency of sweeping can range from several times a day to once or twice a week.
11.3.1 Frequency of Street Cleansing
Daily sweeping of public streets is essential where there is habitation close by. Isolated pockets or roads with little or no habitation around do not require daily cleansing but at the same time they cannot be ignored. A schedule of street cleaning should be prepared, prioritizing the roads requiring daily cleansing and the ones which are need to be cleansed periodically.
The following measures may be taken to ensure regular sweeping of streets and public places:
11.3.1.1 Cleansing of Street on a daily basis including Sundays and Public Holidays
Cleansing of the public roads, streets, lanes, by-lanes should be done daily if there is habitation or commercial activity on one or both sides of the street. A list of such roads and streets together with their length and width should be prepared and a program for their daily cleaning should be worked out by the local body keeping in view the work norms (yardsticks) prescribed. Roads and streets with no cluster habitation which do not require daily cleaning may be put in a separate group and may be taken up for need-based cleaning on alternate days, twice a week, once a week or occasionally, as considered appropriate by the urban local body. Similarly a timetable should be prepared for cleaning of open public spaces daily or periodically to ensure that they do not become dump yards and remain clean.
(a) Working on Sundays:
The generation of waste is a continuous process. As waste is produced each day, collection, transportation and disposal of waste is required to be done daily. There can therefore be no holiday in street sweeping, primary collection, transportation, processing and disposal of waste. All local bodies should therefore re-organize their work schedule and ensure that the Sanitation Department functions on all days in the year irrespective of Sundays and public holidays. This does not mean that Sanitation Department staff shall have no weekly off or holidays. The sweepers and other staff engaged in collection, transportation and disposal of waste as well as supervision of sanitation services should be given their statutory weekly off by rotation instead of giving them off on Sunday, by dividing the staff into seven groups and each group getting a weekly off on one of the days of the week. Thus one-seventh of the staff should be enjoying their weekly off on each day of the week. This will necessitate staff consolidation or creation of additional posts to the extent of one-seventh of the total strength of the staff in the cities where no cleaning is presently done on Sundays.
Alternatively, the staff may be given two half days (afternoon) off in a week in lieu of one full day weekly off if the sweepers agree to such an arrangement. Here the sweepers may leave work after working for 4 hours on two days out of seven days of the week to make up their weekly off. Perhaps they may be happy to have two half holidays instead of one weekly off in a week as they will have more time for themselves and the family twice a week. However, since this has legal implications, such arrangements will have to be worked out by mutual consent.
This arrangement of giving two half days’ leave in lieu of one full day weekly off, may be made applicable to street sweepers and drain cleaners and their supervisors only and not to the transportation workers or workers engaged in the disposal of waste as these activities have to continue for full shifts of the day.
One-seventh additional staff may be engaged in these sections of the SWM department to make up the requirement of working on all the days, or overtime may be given as per the need to complete the day’s work.
(b) Review of Holidays given to the staff working in essential services such as Collection, Transportation, Processing and Disposal of Waste:
The list of public holidays being given to staff engaged in essential services vis-a-vis general category staff should be reviewed by the local body. Normally the number of holidays given to essential services staff are less than half the number of holidays given to general category staff. After review, the local body may finalize the number of holidays to be given to the sweepers and other staff in SWM and thereafter may make necessary arrangements for the collection, transportation and disposal of waste on all public holidays by either suitably compensating existing workers for holiday or by creating additional mechanisms to carry out the work on public holidays. The staff can also be compensated by salary/allowance as deemed proper. This suggestion does not preclude continuance of existing arrangements, if any, made by the local body to provide SWM services on public holidays.
(c) Substitution of Sanitation Workers:
When any sanitation worker remains absent or proceeds on leave, alternate arrangements must be made to ensure that cleaning is done as usual. Badli workers or leave reserve could be used for this purpose. Any other satisfactory arrangements, which are currently in use for this purpose, may continue. Work must not suffer on account of absenteeism.
(d) Prevent open Burning of Waste by Sweepers and the Public:
All Urban Local Bodies should take measures to prevent burning of tree leaves and other waste by sweepers on the roadside and direct sweepers to take all waste to the communal waste storage bins/sites only. Action may be taken against the erring employees. Where open spaces are available nearby, the leaves could be rapid-composted and used locally as organic manure for roadside plantations.
