Restoration & Rejuvenation of Wah Umkhrah, Wah Umkhen & Wah Umshyrpi

        Stakeholder Consultation

        MoM - Stakeholder Consultation

Solid Waste Management

An organisation for solid waste management exists in the area under the Municipal Board. In the other townships no organisation exist and its residents either composed composts their waste into pits and burns it. Sometimes they are also observed to throw the waste in the nearest watercourse. The cleaning of road is done voluntary by providing one person from every family to work on allotted days. In the cantonment board separate organisation for collection and disposal exists. In the Bara Bazar area, conservancy staff as well as collection vehicles and community bins are also provided.

Solid Waste Collection:

Within the Municipal area the conservancy department of the Municipal Board is responsible for regular collection and disposal of waste. This entire job is done with a fleet of 10 trucks, 2 tractors, 257 road sweepers, 5 conservancy supervisors, 6 sanitary inspectors and a chief medical and health officer. There is a dumping ground located nearly 8 kms away from the town, which is maintained by the board. There is no data available to indicate as to what is the total cost of collection and disposal of solid waste. As per the information received from the Municipal Board, there are 105 dustbins within the area of 10.8 sq. kms (10800000 sqm) which work out to one dustbin per approximately 102857 sqm, i.e., a person has to walk nearly 320 mtrs radius for reaching a dustbin, not an ideal situation for collection and disposal of garbage. Normally, nobody should be required to walk more than 60 mtrs to reach a dustbin. As mentioned above, the vehicles are under the control of sanitary inspectors and in each vehicle 5 persons are deployed which is in accordance with the normal norm of a Municipal Corporation. The total volume available for disposal of garbage is 44.56 mtrs cube for a population of approximately one and a quarter lakhs.

Out of the ten trucks available with the municipal board, 4 trucks are more than 8 years old and needs to be replaced. Out of 10 vehicles used for collection of garbage, 6 are tippers and 4 are lorries and with each trip, 5 numbers of helpers are deployed, as the garbage has to be manually removed and dumped at the dumping ground. Hence, instead of making two trips per day, each vehicle makes only one trip. The old trucks should be replaced with hydraulic tippers to reduce cost of collection and transportation.

Present method of disposal

Presently garbage collected is disposed into the gorges of the trenching ground situated at MAWLAI on Shillong Guwahati Road. This system is highly unhygienic and detrimental to the Eco-system there. Leachates emanating from the dumping site may find its way to the nearby water  

Present problems

• To dump 100 MTS of Urban waste daily, the Corporation need a 1Hectare of land every year.
• Open dumping pollutes air and sub-soil water heavily.
• The dumping grounds become breeding centres for mosquitoes and other disease carrying vectors.
• Municipal workers and rag-pickers have to work in un-hygienic conditions.
• The waste undergoes anaerobic composting producing offensive odours and fostering harmful pathogens.

Recycling of the solid waste in an Eco-friendly and economically sustainable way is the only solution to this public health problem.

AVAILABLE OPTIONS FOR DISPOSAL

• Ocean dumping,
• Sanitary land filling,
• Pelletisation,
• Aerobic composting,
• Anaerobic composting,
• Vermiculture,
• Incineration,
• Gasification and
• Wet oxidation

In India all the Municipal Corporation are adopting land filling of low lying areas for disposal of solid waste. The solid wastes are simply dumped without any treatment into land (depressions, ditches, soaked ponds) or on the outskirts of the city in an unscientific manner. The above practice of disposal leads to air and water (surface and ground water) pollution, releases foul smell and poses public health problems. In SHILLONG enough and adequate area of land without human settlement around is not available for regular disposal, besides open dumping invites public criticism and protest, hence a proper waste management process including safe collection, transportation, treatment, processing and safe disposal of refuses rejected from the process will have to be adopted.

PROCESS AVAILABLE FOR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

• Physical Process

• Pelletisation

• Biochemical Process:

• Aerobic Composting
• Anaerobic Digestion
• Vermiculture
• Thermal Process:

• Incineration,
• Gasification.

    Among the above options/technologies following technologies are being considered in India.

• Pelletisation,
• Anaerobic digestion using bio methanation technology for production of power,
• Production of organic manure using controlled aerobic composting.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 

Main aim of the project is to implement an Eco-friendly technology for recycling of solid waste generated in SHILLONG. After evaluating various options available, SHILLONG Municipal Board has decided to use Excel’s technology for Bio-conversion of solid waste into organic manure.

EXCEL’s WASTE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

M/s. Excel Industries Limited, Bombay, the pioneer in Agro Chemicals and Industrial Chemicals, have developed a cost effective technology for solid waste management. Years of research and pilot scale trials have resulted in development of this Eco-friendly technology. This indigenous technology developed by Excel Industries Limited, Bombay is being adopted by many Municipal Corporation through out India.

A few South East Asian countries are actively considering to adopt this technology in their sectors. High level delegations from these countries have visited Excel visits in operation and got convinced the adaptability of the technology.

METHODOLOGY

The technology is basically for controlled bio conversion of city garbage into organic manure adopting an integrated approach involving following steps: -

• Waste sanitation treatment at points of generation.

• Controlled aerobic composting and mechanical screening of digested compost to yield good quality organic manure useful for agriculture and horticultural crops

DEVELOPMENT GOALS OF THE PROJECT

The project on one hand will solve the environmental problem due to solid waste and on the other hand will make available good quality organic manure, which alone can arrest the soil degradation due to indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and improper water management methods.