Nagaland jots down unique ways to sensitize people on plastic ban; know how..!

Kohima, February 14: As the entire nation swipes in to ban plastic, the northeast state Nagaland is no behind. With the zeal to save the environment, the state government has made it a point that awareness should be created but in a unique way.

 

As Nagaland struggles to do away with plastics after the State Government issued a ban on plastics last November, the State capital’s municipal body has embarked on several strategies to sensitize the public on the ill-effects of plastic, the latest being a handholding effort with the community’s major stakeholders and that is women..!

The municipal corporation is sensitizing people on plastic pollution and its harmful effects and the role of women in waste management. The influential role of women in the community is often undermined but if there is any group which can reach the grassroots with anything to do with management and make an impact, it is women.

The people of the states were also enlightened on the harmful effects of plastic pollution on the human population, plants and wildlife. Voicing deep concern that although plastic is a material made to last forever, yet 33 per cent of all plastic- water bottles, bags and straws- are used just once and thrown away. Disposed plastic materials can remain in the environment for up to 2000 years and longer. toxic chemicals leach out of plastics and are found in the blood and tissue of nearly all of us and exposure to such chemicals is linked to cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption, fertility and other ailments.

Women play a major role in waste management. As waste is generated from home, and women play a vital role in managing them. Learning to segregate dry and wet waste is a start, while challenging the womenfolk to use cloth carry-bags while shopping as that will help in beating plastic usage. It is a dismay that the Government of Nagaland had issued a ban on single-use plastics in November 2018 but there has been no visible impact to this ban.

It is essential to pointed out that the people should not always wait for government directives, and should rather make their voices be heard by the government to act upon what they want, and can do.