Pune: To spread awareness on the ill-effects of dumping garbage in the open, SwaCH along with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had organised a rally on December 19 at Gosavi Vasti, Warje, for the first time in the Vasti.

According to records of SwaCH, there are 500 slum pockets in the city. From these pockets, SwaCH has covered 70,000 homes for garbage collection. The Vasti has 900 households in total, from which 600 have been covered by five SWaCH waste pickers where 500 kg wet waste and 150 kg dry waste was collected.

Ravi Dambre, the outreach assistant of SwaCH, said, "We normally collect yearly data ward-wise and release it in January on the basis of entire coverage and expansion in the year. The idea of this rally was to convince people about the need to eradicate land fillings and the ill-effects caused due to it."

Deepak Dhelwan, Senior Sanitary Inspector of Warje-Karvenagar Ward Office, said, "It becomes a necessity to make for the people, who stay in slums, to make them aware of wet and dry waste. After the collection of waste, the segregated materials are used in biogas while the sanitary waste that cannot be recycled are sent to PMC garbage stations, which are then processed."