Transforming Waste Management for 7 Million Citizens

The challenge

Chhattisgarh needed to implement the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and the Swachh Bharat Mission across 168 urban local bodies, from cities to small towns, with limited institutional capacity, no unified policy framework, and services that had never been designed around decentralized processing.

My role and approach

As Team Leader of the EY program management unit embedded with the State Urban Development Agency, I led the team across policy, infrastructure, procurement, and capacity building:

• Prepared the state's institutional and regulatory framework for solid waste, plastic waste, C&D waste, and faecal sludge management, including the state FSSM policy
• Built the network of Solid Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) centers that empowered self-help groups, community organizations, and recyclers
• Ran bid process management on FIDIC-based contracts across waste, water, and sanitation infrastructure
• Led the state's strategy across the 2020, 2021, and 2022 national cleanliness surveys
• Prepared COVID-19 SOPs protecting sanitation workers handling municipal waste during the pandemic

The impact

The program transformed waste management for seven million citizens, processing 1,600 tons a day at a fraction of previous cost and creating 9,500 green jobs, and contributed to Chhattisgarh being named India's cleanest state. The engagement itself grew from a solid-waste mandate into a sixfold-expanded advisory across affordable housing, water, wastewater, and air quality, with extended duration, while engagement margins nearly doubled.