COIMBATORE: Members of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) from the US have trained sanitary workers in Coimbatore on land filling and solid waste management techniques.
A three-member team from the US was in the city for three days and visited the Vellalore dumpyard and other sites where waste was collected, segregated and managed.
Thomas A Frankiewicz, programme manager, climate change division of EPA, said the main problem was to differentiate between a dumpyard and a landfill.
"Landfills are very important to a solid waste management project but they need to be maintained well. It should not be turned into dumpyards," he said.
City corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan said that while the city was taking several initiatives on segregation, landfills was one part where they required some assistance.
"We have the required infrastructure but there are several aspects such as compacting, fly menace, odour, leachate management and soil cover materials. We hope this workshop helps us deal with these issues and the experts come up with technical advice on these issues," said the corporation commissioner.
The project of EPA on Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) focuses on reducing methane and black carbon by working directly with cities. The aim is to reduce open burning, divert organic material from landfills, encourage recycling and proper collection of waste, and establish sanitary landfills with recovery and use of landfill methane.
"Apart from working in the agricultural sector and brick kilns, we are also working on solid waste management practices. Since the corporation showed its interest on landfill operations, we conducted this workshop," said Thomas.
They have already conducted similar workshops at East Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru. "Since the ministry of urban development suggested Coimbatore and said the city had several innovative initiatives in waste management, we selected the city," they said.
Nimmi Damodaran, consultant for EPA, said she was impressed with various campaigns and projects initiated by the civic body. "The waste management kiosks, incentives given to sanitary workers and various projects initiated by the city NGOs are very innovative that would add perspective to the initiative," said Nimmi.
The corporation officials who took part in the workshop said that it was very useful. "We had several queries and wanted some ideas to deal with the land fill gas. They gave us technical expertise to deal with it and re-use it. Moreover, they guided us on the operational part of land fill which was one part that we needed some help," said a corporation sanitary officer.
The members also suggested various methods to curb, odour, tackle fly menace and ways to minimise the seepage of leachate (the liquid generated out of waste) into the soil.
A three-member team from the US was in the city for three days and visited the Vellalore dumpyard and other sites where waste was collected, segregated and managed.
Thomas A Frankiewicz, programme manager, climate change division of EPA, said the main problem was to differentiate between a dumpyard and a landfill.
"Landfills are very important to a solid waste management project but they need to be maintained well. It should not be turned into dumpyards," he said.
City corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan said that while the city was taking several initiatives on segregation, landfills was one part where they required some assistance.
"We have the required infrastructure but there are several aspects such as compacting, fly menace, odour, leachate management and soil cover materials. We hope this workshop helps us deal with these issues and the experts come up with technical advice on these issues," said the corporation commissioner.
The project of EPA on Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) focuses on reducing methane and black carbon by working directly with cities. The aim is to reduce open burning, divert organic material from landfills, encourage recycling and proper collection of waste, and establish sanitary landfills with recovery and use of landfill methane.
"Apart from working in the agricultural sector and brick kilns, we are also working on solid waste management practices. Since the corporation showed its interest on landfill operations, we conducted this workshop," said Thomas.
They have already conducted similar workshops at East Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru. "Since the ministry of urban development suggested Coimbatore and said the city had several innovative initiatives in waste management, we selected the city," they said.
Nimmi Damodaran, consultant for EPA, said she was impressed with various campaigns and projects initiated by the civic body. "The waste management kiosks, incentives given to sanitary workers and various projects initiated by the city NGOs are very innovative that would add perspective to the initiative," said Nimmi.
The corporation officials who took part in the workshop said that it was very useful. "We had several queries and wanted some ideas to deal with the land fill gas. They gave us technical expertise to deal with it and re-use it. Moreover, they guided us on the operational part of land fill which was one part that we needed some help," said a corporation sanitary officer.
The members also suggested various methods to curb, odour, tackle fly menace and ways to minimise the seepage of leachate (the liquid generated out of waste) into the soil.