Cleanliness commandments

An advisor to Solid Waste Management,Clean Jharkhand Project,Ganga ICDP Kanpur and INTACH Waste Network,Almitra Patel,who currently is a member of Supreme Court committee solid waste management,has listed out measures to prevent any fire outbreak at Urali Devachi in her letter to Urban Development Minister.

According to Patel,compared to dried food wastes the non-food component of urban waste burns easily and has high calorific value. “Especially tyres and plastic have high calorific value. Government should insist that Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should immediately stop collecting mixed waste from residents and establishments. Only food wastes should be collected daily as they can putrefy and cause problems,” says Patel. In her letter,Patel has also suggested measures to segregate the non-food and food components of the garbage. Dry waste days are what,she feels,can flush out the non-food components from the waste stream. “I have pointed out that all non-food dry waste should not be unloaded at Urali on top of other waste,but at Wardwise kabadiwala shops or rag picker colonies,such as the one at the foot of Urali Devachi dump. Different dry waste days are the only way to keep plastics and rags etc out of the waste stream,” she says.

Patel also advocates for the MSW rules. She feels regular implementation of the rules can better the situation in more ways than one. Her frequent visits to the site made her observe the consequences stemming up due to MSW rules fading in to oblivion. “City never followed MSW rules advice to prevent new development in buffer zone around it. Nor do they stabilise waste as required by rules through unloading in windrows and weekly turning,despite demos,which I observed in 2003. On my last visit on Jan 19 2009 to monitor progress,I found good progress on composting some waste at Hanjer plant,a cosmetic show but no progress at SELCO plant,ongoing functioning bio-mining of old waste by Bhavani Bio Organics,which can be readily expanded. I visited nearby Urali farmers who find this bio-mined compost useful for agriculture,” she elaborates.

The site-reaching crisis proportions,resulting in nearby residents fleeing their villages to escape the smoke and ash,had shaken and stirred the Pune Municipal Corporation. However,Patel too points out to fact that it is the lack of an administrative will that caused such chaos at the site. “Utter municipal indifference to sensible waste management at Urali,beyond stationing there since years some unfortunate firemen who have been trained to save human lives,not put band aids on grossly mismanaged waste dumps. In fact,watering the waste heaps to put out fire actually accelerates methane production and consequent repeat fires. MPL indifference to the fate of villages that do not come under the municipality. On my Jan 19 visit,I personally stopped a MPL tractor from shifting old waste into a 30 ft deep water-filled quarry,deliberately accelerating groundwater pollution. Not sure if it resumed after I left,” she says.

Highlights of the letter
* Fuel to fire: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should only collect food wastes daily.
* Use NGO services: For dry waste collection.
* Purchase dry waste: ITC’s dry-waste-purchase model at Eluru should be followed here.
* Minimise methane,recycle dump-space by biomining: Old waste is shaved off in layers,sprayed with bioculture and heaped in windrows,its volume goes down by 30-40 per cent.

Follow MSW rules:
a) Minimise burden to landfill by all possible means.
b) Stabilise waste Use paved concrete area below the capped portion of the dump for windrowing purpose and level and compact the waste into airless methane-generating heaps.
c) Maximise use of existing waste-processors