CLOCC Programme kicks off in India

Dec 27, 2022 | ISWA blog, ISWA news

CLOCC Workshop: Event Summary

With a vision to achieve clean oceans through clean communities by creating healthy societies and a clean environment, a  special three-day workshop was organized by partners of the Clean Oceans through Clean Communities (CLOCC) Programme – Hand in Hand India, Avfall Norge, Hand in Hand Sweden, International Solid Waste Association, Institute of Chartered Waste Managers, and Ambire Global – at Mamallapuram, Tamilnadu, India for officials of municipalities and town panchayats. CLOCC is a community and network driven programme owned by Avfall Norge and funded by Norad (the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation). The CLOCC Programme’s vision is to achieve healthy societies and a clean environment – through sustainable communities, green jobs, and business opportunities in local circular economies.  

The workshop was designed and organized for policy and technical staff from local government, municipalities, panchayats, and state and national agencies who are involved in waste management (collection, treatment, disposal); and waste management planning (budgeting, policy, logistics, regulation etc.) from coastal districts along the Chennai-Puducherry corridor and was successfully launched on 6th of December in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu. The workshop objective was to introduce CLOCC Programme, enhance the capacity of participants to manage and treat municipal solid waste, and prevent pollution. This was achieved by providing sound and practical presentations to introduce topics under an Integrated Sustainable Waste Management Framework and the 7-step Participatory Planning Approach to design and develop context-specific waste management and action plans for the participating districts/municipalities/town and village panchayts. Key workshop participants included policy and technical staff, municipality leaders, elected chairmen, and counsellors.

The workshop was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Thiru A.R.Rahul Nadh, I.A.S., District Collector, Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu. During his speech, the Collector emphasized on maintaining the cleanliness of Mamallapuram since it is a prime tourist hub. He stressed that it is the responsibility of every individual to prevent littering and keeping our communities and beaches clean. The Collector was enthusiastic about the CLOCC Programme and stressed that the government would provide all the support for the CLOCC project activities and initiatives. Mr. Sigve Andera, CLOCC Programme Director, Avfall Norge introduced the project goals and workshop objectives. He explained in brief about the solid waste management methods followed in Norway followed by a video documentation of the how inter-municipal cooperation activities are setup in Norway. A special welcome video message was delivered by Ambassador of Norway to India Mr. Hans Jacob Frydenlund where he congratulated the launch and reiterated support for the CLOCC Programme.

Key topics

  • A special welcome note was delivered by Hans Jacob Frydenlund, Ambassador- Embassy of Norway through virtual mode.
  • Sigve Andera, Avfall Norge, introduced the goals and objectives of the CLOCC Programme.
  • Vivek Agarwal, ISWA & ICWM, gave a detailed insight Municipal Solid Waste Management History in India.
  • Satya Oktamalandi, ISWA (virtual mode) shared a case study and update on CLOCC’s work in Banyuwangi, Indonesia.
  • Nao Takeuchi, UN- Habitat (virtual) introduced UN Habitat’s Waste Wise Cities Tool, baseline data collection, and participatory planning approach.
  • Ramadoss, Managing Director, QBS, elaborated on the topic of Municipal Waste Management covering various key aspects such as solid waste generation, status of municipal solid waste, and collection & storage of waste.
  • Aditi Ramola, ISWA, introduced the Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) framework and the importance of the 7-step participatory planning approach in developing waste master and action plans.
  • Bhavana Singh, Project Manager – Greentech Infra Pvt. Ltd. introduced topics on waste reduction and 3R activities. She also gave a brief presentation on BCC (Behavior Change in Community) and IEC (Information Education and Communication) especially in schools focusing on children.
  • Ashish Kumar Chauhan, Senior Manager, Center for Science & Environment, Delhi handled a session on Marine litter Status and Impact – India & the World. A video on the harmful effects of marine litter was an eye-opener for the participants.
  • Varun Boralkar, Vice President – Strategic Business Group, Blue Planet Environmental Solutions Ltd. gave a detailed insight on the problems associated with landfills and gave examples on biomining of legacy dumpsites projects around India.
  • R. Balasubramanian, Consultant, Co-processing Expert presented at a session on how to manage hotspots, the importance of circular economy and co-processing.
  • Sruthi Sharma Rana – Assistant Professor, TERI School of Advanced Studies gave a clear picture about the Solid Waste Management Regulatory Framework in India.

On the last day of the workshop, an interactive Q & A session was conducted by Mr. Sigve Andera on sustainable financing of municipal solid waste management. Government officials from the Corporation/Municipalities and Town Panchayats actively participated in the session and shared their thoughts and ideas during the group exercise. Madurantakam municipality, Maraimalai Nagar municipality, and the Edaikazhinadu town panchayat have shown interest in being a part of the project. A key achievement of the workshop was the detailed interaction with the Stakeholders of Municipalities/ Town Panchayats who are interested in the goals of the CLOCC Programme and would like it to be implemented in their regions.

Overall, the event created awareness among all the participants about the importance of sound and sustainable waste management and the steps to be taken to achieve healthy societies and a clean environment. The participants shared positive feedback about the workshop and expressed their interest in attending such innovative workshops in the future.

Next steps

In the next weeks, colleagues from Hand in Hand India will visit all the municipalities and town panchayats in the coastal areas to identify municipalities interested to join the project and develop MoUs with them. Once the MoUs are signed and the area that the CLOCC Programme will work in is defined, a data gathering and assessment exercise using UN Habitats Waste Wise Cities Tool will be conducted to establish a baseline. Over the next months, following the ISWM framework and participatory approach, several stakeholder workshops and mini-trainings will be conducted to draft context-specific waste master plans and action plans.

ABOUT CLOCC

CLOCC Stands for Clean Oceans through Clean Communities. 

This initiative by Avfall Norge came to life in 2018 and ISWA (International Solid Waste Association) is proud to be its implementing partner. The project is supported by Norad (the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation), and is a part of the Norwegian government’s development programme to reduce marine plastic pollution and microplastics. The project was allocated a budget of 40 million NOK from 2018-2022.  

Their vision is to achieve healthy societies and a clean environment through inclusive and sustainable communities, green jobs, and business opportunities in local circular economies.

CLOCC’s GOALS

The goals are to prevent and significantly reduce marine litter and microplastics pollution (SDG 14.1), through improved municipal solid waste collection and controlled management of waste (SDG 11.6.1) and increased recycling of suitable materials (SDG 12.5.1)

CLOCC’s APPROACH

CLOCC’s approach is an Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) framework. This is a highly participatory process where the stakeholders make decisions and choose the systems that meet their needs. 

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