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Public Health / Sanitation

Orders to stop dumping at Pettippalam

Tuesday, 07 August 2012 06:07 administrator
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The Hindu           07.08.2012

Orders to stop dumping at Pettippalam

A Correspondent

Waste disposal in the area against CRZ norms

The Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) has said waste disposal at Pettippalam is in stark violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone norms.

In a letter, it instructed the Thalassery municipality to stop dumping garbage in the area henceforth. The letter dated July 23 and addressed to the secretary of the municipality said dumping of waste in the CRZ area was prohibited as per the CRZ notification, 1991 and 2011. The KCZMA asked the municipality ‘to stop all the illegal activities in the area and to undertake necessary steps to implement schemes for phasing out dumping’ in the area.

The steps should be in concurrence with the CRZ notification of 2011, according to the letter. The KCZMA warned that non-compliance would warrant action as per the Environment Protection Act 1986.

The KCZMA’s move followed a private petition on the issue. It also sought an explanation from the municipality on the issue, which was also discussed by the CZMA in its 50th meeting.

Responding to the letter, municipal vice-chairman C.K. Rameshan told The Hindu that the KCZMA had not taken into consideration the explanations rendered by the municipality in its letter to the authority.

The arguments put forward by the municipality had not been heeded to by the KCZMA, and hence the local body would go on an appeal against the order. This was also because Kerala was exempted from the CRZ Act, he said. Dumping in the area had been drastically cut down and the municipal authorities were studying the possibilities of a scientific waste treatment plant in the area, he added.

Local resistance

Owing to stiff protests from the residents of Pettippalam, dumping was stalled in the area between November 2011 and March 2012. After directions from the government, garbage dumping resumed in the area with the aid of police force in March that resulted in a violent clash between the protestors and the authorities.

Only limited loads of garbage were being dumped at the area since then, Mr. Rameshan said.

  •  Coastal zone panel seeks explanation from municipality
  • Local body to appeal against order
Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 August 2012 06:09
 

More than a lakh households in Bangalore don’t have toilets

Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:51 administrator
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The Hindu        07.08.2012

More than a lakh households in Bangalore don’t have toilets

Tanu Kulkarni

To be more exact, the figure is 1.2 lakh families in the city

Although the latest census data on houses, household amenities and assets indicates that close to 95 per cent of the households in the city have access to toilets, public health experts state that a large pocket of the population comprising the poorer segments is denied the facility.

The 2011 census figures state that out of 23,77,056 households in Bangalore, only 5.2 per cent don’t have toilets. However, when it comes to numbers, this translates to more than 1,20,000.

Twin factors

Shahina Sultana, project manager (sanitation), Mytri Sarva Seva Samiti, said that lack of space for open defecation and awareness are the two contributing factors that have helped Bangalore achieve such a high figure. However, she mentions that according to a survey conducted by her organisation in 54 slums, 40 per cent don’t have toilets. “This means that most of the people who don’t have access to toilets are in the slums,” she says.She also stated that most people from the low socioeconomic background are dependent on community toilets for defecation.

A community that lives in a cattle shed in Tasker Town, Shivajinagar, has just one toilet for 100 people. Similarly, another community that lives in temporary sheds in Bheemanakuppe had nine toilets for 200 people a year ago. But Mahadeviah, a resident there, said: “Now, none of the toilets can be used as they are in a very poor condition. This causes inconvenience to women, children and the old people as they have to wait to go to the toilet after dusk.” Bangalore’s percentage of households without toilets is far better than the State’s average of 48.8. In some districts in north Karnataka such as Gadag, Koppal, Raichur and Bijapur, more than 80 per cent of households don’t have the facility.

Public health experts state that lack of sanitation makes people vulnerable to water-prone and vector-borne diseases.Vishwanath, an adviser to Arghyam, a trust that focuses on sanitation, said: “Toilet is only the first step towards achieving complete sanitation.”

Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:52
 

Sewage treatment plants to be upgraded for cleaner sewage

Monday, 06 August 2012 10:13 administrator
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The Times of India    06.08.2012

Sewage treatment plants to be upgraded for cleaner sewage

NOIDA: The Noida Authority has decided to upgrade the two sewage treatment plants in the city to improve the quality of treated sewage and reduce the amount of pollutants discharged. The plants, which now use the UASB (up flow anaerobic sludge blanket) technology, will shift to the new sequential batch reactor (SBR) technology, approved by IIT Roorkee. The board of the Noida Authority has also given the go-ahead in a recent meeting.

The upgradation of the plants — one of 34MLD capacity at Sector 50 and the other of 27MLD at Sector 54 — will cost around Rs 100 crore and the budget allocation for the project has already been approved by Authority CEO Sanjiv Saran.

Noida generates 100MLD of sewage from domestic waste water every day, besides about 18MLD of industrial waste. The plants can now treat around 75MLD. According to Authority officials, the upgradation will not only guarantee a clean environment and ensure better quality of treated water but also stop the use of groundwater for irrigation as the treated waste water will be diverted for such purposes. The plants will also be able to treat more waste.

Earlier last year, the SBR technology was introduced at the Sector 54 plant on a trial basis. It was found that the technology had led to a significant difference in water quality. The biological oxygen demand (BOD), one of the most common measures of pollutant organic material in water levels, had also almost halved.

"Tests done by the pollution control board revealed that levels of organic pollutants in water had gone down drastically with the introduction of the new technology. Thus, we have decided to upgrade both the plants to the SBR technology," Saran said. "The SBR plant requires one-ninth of the space required by the UASB system and its latest technology allows removal of phosphorous and nitrogen, besides the odour," he added.
Last Updated on Monday, 06 August 2012 10:15
 
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