KOHIMA — As the Hornbill Festival enters the
second day, the Ao Morung at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama, is winning
appreciation for managing and segregating waste as asked by the waste
management team.
During a visit to the Ao Morung, the caretakers said that
they have assigned a separate group from within the team to look into waste
management.
This team would collect the waste from around the morung and
then segregate the wet and dry waste before they are collected by the Hornbill
Festival waste management team.
They also said that they have separate waste bins for the
public and the morung.
During visits to other morungs, the Sumi and Angami morungs
also conveyed that they are trying their best to manage and segregate the waste
into dry and wet.
Many of the morungs admitted that they are unable to
segregate waste because there are too many visitors, and proper waste disposal
gets difficult.
Those running the morungs maintained that they are
segregating the kitchen waste, but when it comes to separate bins provided for
dry and wet waste, segregation becomes unmanageable as most visitors just throw
trash randomly into the bins.
Pelenuo, founder and managing director of Zub Zub India,
shared with Eastern Mirror that three parties, namely Human Matrix, Green
Guard, and Zub Zub, are involved in managing the waste during the festival.
She said she has personally visited the Ao Morung and
witnessed how the caretakers have been admirably managing their waste during
the first two days.
Pelenuo said they have informed all the morungs to segregate
the waste into wet and dry, but most of them are not following.
She also shared that during this festival, various teams
have been set up, including a team to educate the people on waste management
and another team working on the ground collecting the trash.
Additionally, waste bins have been placed at different
locations in the whole village, including the morungs, and volunteers have been
assigned to assist in waste management.
She explained that the volunteers would segregate the wet
and dry waste in those morungs that had failed to do so, and then another group
of volunteers would collect the waste and bring it to the Materials Recycling
Facility (MRF) Centre.
