Question

Read the passage given below:

Keeping cities clean is essential for keeping their residents healthy. Our health depends not just on personal hygiene and nutrition, but critically also on how clean we keep our cities and their surroundings. The spread of dengue and chikungunya are intimately linked to the deteriorating state of public health conditions in our cities.

The good news is that waste management to keep cities clean is now getting attention through the Swachh Bharat Mission. However, much of the attention begins and stops with the brooms and the dustbins, extending at most to the collection and transportation of the mixed waste to some distant or not so distant place, preferably out of sight.

The challenge of processing and treating the different streams of solid waste, and safe disposal of the residuals in scientific landfills, has received much less attention in municipal solid waste management than is expected from a health point of view.

One of the problems is that instead of focusing on waste management for health, we have got sidetracked into "waste for energy". If only we were to begin by not mixing the biodegradable component of solid waste (close to 60 percent of the total) in our cities with the dry waste, and instead use this stream of waste for compositing and producing a gas called methane.

City compost from biodegradable waste provides an alternative to farmyard manure (like cow-dung). It provides an opportunity to simultaneously clean up our cities and help improve agricultural productivity and quality of the soil. Organic manure or compost plays a very important role as a supplement to chemical fertilisers in enriching the nutrient-deficient soils. City compost can be the new player in the field.

Benefits of compost on the farm are well-known. The water holding capacity of the soil which uses compost helps with drought-proofing, and the requirement of less water per crop is a welcome feature for a water-stressed future. By making the soil porous, use of compost also makes roots stronger and resistant to pests and decay. Farmers using compost, therefore, need less quantity of pesticides. There is also evidence to suggest that horticulture corps grown with compost have better flavour, size, colour and shelf-life.

City compost has the additional advantage of being weed-free unlike farmyard manure which brings with it the seeds of undigested grasses and requires a substantial additional labour cost for weeding as the crops grow. City compost is also rich in organic carbon, and our soils are short in this.

Farmers clearly recognize the value of city compost. If city waste was composted before making it available to the farmers for applying to the soil, cities would be cleaned up and the fields around them would be much more productive.

Quite apart from cleaning up the cities of biodegradable waste, this would be a major and sustainable contribution to improving the health of our soil without further damage by excessive chemical inputs. What a marvellous change from waste to health!

The good news is that some states are regularly laying plastic roads. Plastic roads will not only withstand future monsoon damage but will also solve a city's problem of disposing of non-recyclable plastic. It is clear that if the mountains of waste from our cities were to be recycled into road construction material, it would tackle the problem of managing waste while freeing up scarce land.

(a) On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognisable abbreviations wherever necessary (minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to it.

(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.

Answer 1

(1) Need of keeping cities clean

a) kpng. residents healthy
b) personal  hygiene & nutrition
c) dengue & chikungunya

(2) attention to waste management

a) Swachh Bharat Mission
b) attn. begins & stops
c) brooms & the dustbins
d) transptn. Of mixed waste

(3) treatment of different streams of solid

a) safe disposal
b) scientific landfills
c) less attn. in municipal solid waste

(4) utilizing waste

a) waste for energy
b) not mixing the bio-dgrdbl. Wast
c) producing methane gas

(5) city compost

a) alternative to farmyard manure
b) clean up cities
c) organic manure

(6) benefits of compost

a) drought proofing
b) less water /crop
c) makes roots strngr.

(7) additional advantage of compost

a) weed free
b) avoids adnl. labour cost
c) rich  in organic carbon

(8) compost  as a measure to clean city

a) composted city waste
b) applying to the soil
c) cleaned up cities
d) more prdctv. Field

(9) sustainable contribution of compost

a) imprvg. the health of soil
b) excessive chemical inputs
c) waste to health

(10) recyclying city waste

a) laying plastic roads
b) future monsoon damage
c) recycled into constrn. Material

Key to Abbreviations:
Kpng.--------------keeping	&-------------------and
attn.--------------attention	bio-dgrdbl------bio-degradable
/-------------------per	strngr.----------stronger
adnl.------------additional	prdctv.---------productive
imprvg.--------improving	constrn.------construction

(b) Summary

Need for keeping our cities clean is to keep residents healthy to save from Dengue and  Chikungunya. Swachh Bharat Mission as an attention begins with brooms and the dustbins and transportation of mixed waste management. Safe disposal of streams of solid waste can be through scientific landfills. Compost is an alternative to farmyard manure. Waste can be utilized for energy by not mixing the bio-degradable waste with dry waste. City waste can be used as a material in road construction.