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Solid Waste Management

3 composting units begin operating at Margao

Thursday, 17 September 2009 06:54 administrator
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The Times of India 17.09.2009

3 composting units begin operating at Margao

TNN 17 September 2009, 06:15am IST

MARGAO: Following strict instructions issued by urban development minister Joaquim Alemao on Tuesday to all the councils in the state, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) started operating three composting units on Wednesday. Council chairperson Savio Coutinho said altogether 18 composting units, including six that are being readied, would be fully operational by the end of the month.

The council will be making use of the six composting units at Osia market complex for local segregation, Coutinho said. The local segregation will help in reducing the quantum of total waste dumped at Sonsoddo. But, compared to the 60 composting units earlier planned --- three each for the 20 wards of the council - the local segregation of waste is still a huge task.

Former vice-chairperson of the council Narayan Fondekar said, "Local composting of waste in all the 20 wards is next to impossible and a plant at Sonsoddo is a must for the treatment of waste.''

From the urban development minister to opposition councillors, the veered opinion is that without the participation of the people, composting units cannot be developed in all the wards.

In fact chief minister Digambar Kamat, who is the local MLA of the city, inaugurated one composting unit at the electricity workers union last year with the fond hope that such units will solve the vexed garbage problem.

But, within days, some elements damaged the newly-constructed units in some wards while others protested saying they would not like the units to be developed in their areas. The efforts undertaken by one NGO to spread awareness of segregation at source too failed to evince interest and the council was left to routing the garbage to Sonsoddo virtually abandoning the plan of building the units in all the wards.

Meanwhile, efforts are underway to take a decision between IL&FS and Fomento and Ramky Enviro Eng Pvt Ltd., to handle the Sonsoddo project. In this regard the chief minister has convened a meeting on Friday to decide on the procedure for finalisation as the council at its special meeting on August 31 decided to let the government take a decision on appointing a consultant.
 

City of Destiny generating 1,300 tonnes of garbage a day

Thursday, 17 September 2009 00:03 administrator
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The Hindu 17.09.2009

City of Destiny generating 1,300 tonnes of garbage a day

 

Staff Reporter

Call to recycle waste as eco-friendly measure

 

Presentation on Wealth Out of Waste Initiative

Need to encourage recycling initiative all over the country

— Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

Joga Rao Bhamidipati, vice-president, ITC Paper Boards and Speciality Papers Division, delivering a lecture in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. G.S. Sivakumar, CII former chairman, Vizag Zone, K.V. Bhaskar, present chairman and Vinay Iyer of CII Vizag Zone are also seen.

VISAKHAPATNAM: With booming population, garbage disposal is posing as a big threat, says Joga Rao Bhamidipati, Vice-President (commercials), ITC Limited (paperboards & specialty papers division).

Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are respectively generating 4200 and 1300 tonnes of garbage per day with not much landfill area. With population growing by two crore a year, every child born is leading to creation of half-a-kilo garbage per day. With every family of four members generating four kg per day, one should feel the responsibility for recycling it to the maximum extent possible to minimise the damage on mother earth.

‘22 trees were cut’

Mr. Rao, who gave a presentation on `Wealth Out of Waste (WOW) Initiative’ at a meeting conducted by CII on Wednesday, cited how on an average per capita consumption of 9.8 kg of paper was leading to axing of trees at fast pace. Despite popularity of Information Technology, the growth of paper consumption is growing by 10 per cent per annum.

He said for every tonne of paper consumed, 22 fully grown trees were cut. He said ITC had taken the WOW Initiative to recycle paper and other waste so as to reduce damage to the environment.

Expressing concern over excessive use of tissue papers in foreign countries, he said compared to per capita paper consumption of 9.8 kg in India, in Dubai the consumption was 139 kg. For consuming one tonne of aluminium, seven tonnes of natural resources was being used, he pointed out. Similarly, for producing one tonne gold, five lakh tonnes of natural resources have to be destroyed.

Mr. Rao said by recycling one tonne of waste paper, one could generate 100 per cent good paper. He said apart from educating the public on minimising garbage creation by changing usage pattern and checking population, one should encourage the recycling initiative all over the country as an eco-friendly measure, he emphasised.

S. Krishna Murthy, Additional Commissioner of Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation, said they were trying to implement WOW initiative in one zone of the corporation area in coordination with ITC.CII Vizag zone chairman K.V. Bhaskar and past chairman G.S. Siva Kumar, spoke.

Last Updated on Thursday, 17 September 2009 00:05
 

Margao Municipal Council decides to go ahead with Plan-B

Sunday, 13 September 2009 16:01 administrator
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The Times of India 13.09.2009

Margao Municipal Council decides to go ahead with Plan-B

13 September 2009, 05:48am IST

MARGAO: While chief minister, Digambar Kamat, is scheduled to convene a meeting of Congress Curtorim MLA, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco and BJP MLA from Fatorda, Damu Naik, in the coming week to discuss the handing over of the Sonsoddo project either to IL&FS and Fomento or Ramky Enviro Eng Pvt Ltd, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has decided to go ahead with putting into place its Plan-B in view of the mounting garbage at the dump site.

The plan entails hiring of 20 workers to do the daily segregation of waste at the site. With the services of 25 daily workers withdrawn four months ago as they had completed 240 days of work and under employment norms would have had to be regularized by the council, around 6,000 tonnes of fresh garbage has mounted at the site.

Council chairperson, Savio Coutinho, said on Saturday that the 20 workers would be engaged in the coming week. "We are trying to hire the same workers who were engaged earlier as they are trained and the work will be done faster," said sanitary inspector, Viraj Arabekar.

The interim plan also involves recruiting some 50 daily-wage workers to lift the city's garbage everyday. With a paucity of workers, not all public garbage bins are cleared everyday, leading to accumulation and their spillage by stray animals. The council has faced flak from locals, the opposition and even the police for this.

Meanwhile, chief officer, P Acharya, said the wet waste in the market area could be segregated and locally composted. The composting units in the locality, however, have to be completed first and instructions have been issued accordingly. While there is some protest on the composting of animal waste, the segregation of vegetable waste and composting will take place to reduce the load of garbage being dumped at Sonsoddo.

As for the long-pending door-to-door segregation, the council will require 200-250 workers on a daily basis, said sources. Waste segregation at source is mandated as per MSW rules 2000 and is presently under way only in the electricity employees colony and at housing board. "We will have to understand the logistics first," said Acharya. Describing the commercial city as spread out over a large area, with some scattered areas, he said the feasibility of such segregation was being studied in detail.
 
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