a) On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and sub-headings

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 composting 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 **** and resistant to pests and decay. Farmers using compost, therefore, need less quantity of pesticides. There is also evidence to suggest that horticulture crops 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’* 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

(a) The notes provided below are only guidelines. Any other title, main points and sub-points may be accepted if they are indicative of the candidate’* understanding of the given passage, and the notes include the main points, with suitable and recognizable abbreviations.

Complete sentences are not to be accepted as notes.

Numbering of points may be indicated in different ways, as long as a consistent pattern is followed.

  **NOTE MAKING**

Distribution of Marks

(a) Title & Indentation

Content (minimum 3 headings and sub-headings, with proper indentation and notes)

Abbreviations / Symbols (with /without key) – any four

NOTE:

Accept the notes and summary in the third person

Suggested Notes:

Title: Waste Management: Some Facts or any other suitable title.

1. Reasons for keeping cities clean

1.1 to keep the residents healthy

1.2 health depends on

1.2.1 personal cleanliness

1.2.2 cleanliness of city

1.3. to prevent spread of dengue and chikun.

1.4. to prevent deterioration of public health conditions in cities (any two)

2. Reasons for waste management

2.1 helps keep cities clean

2.2 being promoted through SBM

2.3 earlier began and stopped with brooms and dustbin

2.4 to sensitize impce. of waste separation (any two)

3. Challenges of waste management

3.1 has received less attn.

3.2 focus only on waste management for energy

3.3 no focus on W.M. for health

3.4 biodegradable being mixed with solid waste

3.5 processing & treatment of solid waste

3.6 safe disposal of residuals in scientific landfills (any three)

4. Benefits of organic manure

4.1 supplement of chem. fertilisers.

4.2 drought-proofing

4.3 makes roots stronger

4.4 free

4.5 rich in org. Carbon

4.6 requires less water (any three)

5. Benefits of city compost

5.1 weed-free

5.2 more productive fields

5.3 chemical inputs avoided

5.4 less labour cost (any two)

6. Benefits of plastic roads

6.1 withstand monsoon damage

6.2 solve city problem of plastic disposal

6.3 free lands from dumping waste (any two)

Detailed Answer :

(a) Suggested Notes

Title: Keeping our cities clean

1. Why is it important?

(a) for healthy residents

(b) stop spreading of **** like dengue and chikungunya

2. Swachh Bharat Mission

(a) a waste management initiative by govt.

(b) begins and stops with brooms and dustbins

(c) extends at the most to collection and trans of waste to a place which is out of sight.

3. Solid waste management

(a) not much attention given

4. Waste for energy

(a) should not mix biodegradable waste with dry waste

(b) instead use it for composting and producing methane gas

5. City compost from biodegradable waste

(a) alt. to farmyard manure

(b) does a dual job–clean cities and improve productivity of soil

(c) has a water-holding capacity

(d) makes soil porous, roots stronger and need less quantity of pesticides

(e) is weed free

(f) rich in organic carbon

6. Good news

(a) Some states are regularly laying plastic roads

(i) withstand future monsoons and solve the problem of non-recyclable plastic

(ii) tackle the prob. of managing waste and free up scarce land

Abbreviations :

govt - government

transp – transportation

alt – alternative

prob - problem

(b) Summary

The summary should include all the important points given in the notes. Content

Expression

Detailed Answer : Summary :

Keeping cities clean is important for keeping their residents healthy. Spread of **** like dengue and chikungunya is linked to unclean surroundings. Swachh Bharat Mission is a waste management initiative by the government. But, the attention begins and stops with the brooms and the dustbins, extending at the most to collection and transportation of waste to a place which is out of sight. Solid waste management has not been given much attention. The policy of ‘waste for energy’ should be adopted. It means that biodegradable waste should not be mixed with dry waste. Instead it should be used for composting and producing methane gas. City compost from biodegradable waste is an alternative to farmyard manure. It does a dual job of cleaning the cities and improving the productivity of the soil. Compost has a great water-holding capacity. By making the soil porous, the roots will become stronger and will need less quantity of pesticides. It is also weed free and is rich in carbon content, which our soil lacks. But the good news is, some states are regularly laying plastic roads. These will withstand future monsoons and solve the problem of non-recyclable plastic. Also, the problem of managing waste will be tackled and scarce land will be freed.