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Initiative for Environment & Development

Centre for Environment & Development (CED)

India is experiencing rapid and widespread environmental degradation at alarming rates. Tremendous pressure is placed upon the country's land and natural resources to support the massive overpopulation. In this scenario, any number of initiatives and research towards environment management for sustainable development is always acceptable. It was in the year 1993, an autonomous R&D institution working in diverse areas focusing on environment and development called Centre for Environment and Development (CED) was set up in Thiruvananthapuram.

CED is the Centre of Excellence on Solid Waste and Wastewater Management of Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, National Key Resource Centre of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India;   Regional Resource Agency of Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Accredited  Agency of Government of Kerala for Waste Management. The functional areas include academic, research, management, policy formulation and implementation support.

CED has its Eastern Regional Centre at Bhubaneswar and another Regional Centre at Hyderabad. Besides, there are many project offices across Kerala and in many other states of the country.

"CED works with a primary objective of carrying out multi and interdisciplinary research on environmental and developmental issues and also to provide consultancy services and capacity development," says, Dr. Babu Ambat, Executive Director, Centre for Environment & Development.

The main objectives of the Centre of Excellence at CED are:

• To formulate strategy and methodology for Solid Waste and Wastewater Management including development of framework for reuse and recycling, planning pilot programmes in two selected cities and preparation of legislative framework to implement waste management;

• To carryout capacity building and training programmes for urban local bodies and also provide handholding support to replicate the programme in other places;

• To function as a Knowledge Centre and Technical Support Unit in the area of Waste Management

Activities under   CoE

Solid Waste Management

The strategy and framework developed by CED for solid waste management combined its own experiences in waste management and the prevailing practices in different cities. It gives detailed guidance on how to deal with solid waste, right from generation to disposal level. It clearly mentions the individual strategies for segregation and storage, primary and secondary collection, street sweeping, transportation, treatment/processing, infrastructure development, landfill, leachate treatment plant and product management. The following diagrams give the features of the strategy at a glance:

Wastewater Management

The strategy and framework developed by CED for wastewater management also was based on own experiences and the prevailing practices in different cities and this give guidance on how to deal with wastewater. The following two diagrams depict the wastewater management strategy and the grey water reuse framework.

Waste water Management Strategy Framework for Wastewater Management

Steps for Evolving Strategy of SWM & WWM

The strategy has been framed taking into consideration the major management aspects such as Technical/Technological, Institutional, Financial and Policy/Legal aspects. While formulating the strategy, the applicability of these four aspects in all the functional components of SW&WWM (Eg, collection, segregation, transportation etc. for SWM and separation, treatment, reuse etc for WWM) has been considered.  In arriving at the strategy for SWM, the following activities were undertaken.

Step 1: Review and experience learning: This included collection of primary Information, review of secondary information and comparison of DPRs for SWM in three cities of Kerala, field visits and preparation and presentation of Review Paper

Step 2: Case studies in two ULBs (Thiruvananthapuram and Payyannur) and also Kochi Corporation where CED is already working in SWM sector

Step 3: Implementation support for pilot schemes: CED piloted the activities in two ULBs, viz., Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and Payyannur Municipality. Those activities were:

Solid Waste Management: Analysis of the strength and weakness of the existing system, shouldering responsibility of operation and management of the 300 MT solid waste processing plant of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, designing and constructing components like Sanitary Engineered Landfill, expanding the windrow composting area of the plant, fabrication and installation of  new trammel to improve the quality of compost, facilitating decision making for establishing a leachate treatment plant, providing technical support for scientific capping of the accumulated rejects at the disposal site (both at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Corporations), designing windrow composting plants suited to small and medium municipalities and fabricating models, taking up detailed research study on the health issues confronted with by the women workers involved in the collection of the solid wastes, etc.

Wastewater Management: Carrying out a detailed survey on the water use and wastewater generation, characterization of wastewater generated, technology identification for wastewater recycle and reuse, a few pilot scale implementations for wastewater recycle and reuse, supporting Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation for design and implementation of a full-fledged  wastewater treatment system for their fish market, establishing a model grey water treatment system (4-barrel system) at CED with special focus on grey water reuse, developing training module for conducting one-week training on wastewater management.

Step 4: Formulation of Strategies for direction to develop National Policy: Developed strategy and framework for solid waste management and wastewater management.

Technical Support to Other Local Governments

The existing in-house capacity together with the new experiences gained from the case study cities enabled CED to provide support (design, implementation, capacity development) to local governments and other agencies in solid waste management, wastewater management, slaughterhouse management, etc. Apart from the pilot cities the following activities have been carried out in other local governments/agencies:

1. Also CED developed a Master Plan for the area, integrating various components like windrow compost plant, LTP, sanitary landfill, overhead water tank, internal road, street lighting, boundary wall, green belt, landscaping, agriculture area, aquaculture area, boat jetty, children’s park, recreation area, residential area, canteen, slaughter house, service station, e-waste processing, recycling unit, shredder, fencing, solid waste capping, weigh bridge, STP, finished product, administrative block, waste to energy and training complex.
2. CED has developed the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for solid waste management and slaughterhouse management for two local governments in Kerala, namely, Kumily and Kaladi Grama Panchayats.
3. CED being the Accredited Agency of Government of Kerala for solid waste management, many local governments are approaching CED to get technical support for solid waste and wastewater management.
4. CED prepared and submitted DPR to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to support them in setting up five modern slaughterhouses at five different places in the city. CED will be providing technical support for implementing the project. 

Documents Prepared as part of CoE

The following documents were prepared as part of the activities of the Centre of Excellence on Solid Waste and Waste water Management at CED

• Strategy and Framework for Municipal Solid Waste Management
• Strategy and Framework for Urban Wastewater Management
• SWM Technology Manual
• Operation and Maintenance Manual for Solid Waste Processing Plants
• MSW (Handling & Management) Byelaw
• Capacity Building for ULBs for SWM
• Course Material for SWM Training
• Course Material for WWM Training
• These documents will help to frame policies and chalk out activities especially for capacity building of urban local bodies in the country on Solid Waste and Wastewater Management.

Solid Waste Management and Waste Water Management in the Urban Local Bodies of India

Solid Waste Management 

Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is a system for handling all the garbage generated in an urban local body. In the Indian context, SWM is a challenging issue for the Urban Local Bodies in view of the expenses and complexity of tasks involved in it. Considering the environmental, aesthetic and health implications, SWM stands out as one of the fundamental responsibilities of any ULB.  The system of SWM should safeguard public health by preventing the spread of diseases and ensure the safety standards. An effective system of solid waste management must be both environmentally and economically acceptable and sustainable.

Solid Waste Management has been one of the neglected areas of urban management activities in India. By and large, in Indian cities and towns, hardly 50 per cent of the solid wastes generated are collected, transported and properly disposed of, giving rise to unsanitary conditions and diseases, especially amongst the urban poor. It is estimated that, out of the 1.2 billion people living in the country, about 320 million dwell in urban areas. A country like India, with its high economic growth and rapid urbanisation, requires immediate solutions to the problems related to management of urban waste. Improper and unscientific SWM measures not only have its local significance but pose much wider global implications like greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. An Integrated system of Solid Waste Management (ISWM) which involves the application of suitable techniques, technologies and management options dealing with all types of solid wastes from various sources is necessary to achieve the twin objectives of (a) waste reduction and (b) effective management of the waste still produced after waste reduction.

The Centre of Excellence at CED took earnest efforts to address these  issues through research and technology support to develop viable models on urban solid waste management, implementation of technology in selected cities (Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Municipal Corporations and Payyannur Municipality) in the initial stage, documentation of various aspects of models developed and providing support services in other places through capacity building and training and extending handholding support to replicate the experiences in other urban local bodies.

Wastewater Management  

The significance of wastewater management is premised on two basic urban issues - (i) the need for safe and scientific management of wastewater for achieving health and hygiene in the urban environment, and (ii) reuse of wastewater as freshwater substitute to reduce the increasing demand for water. Addressing water scarcity requires a multifaceted approach to managing water resources like reducing extraction of water from nature, identifying alternate sources for many of the present water use areas, promoting water reuse options etc.

Urban reuse of wastewater could be the most effective way to reduce consumption of fresh water and the environmental dangers posed by the disposal of large quantities of untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater.  It is a fact that with every increase in the quantity of water used, the quantity of wastewater also will proportionally increase necessitating the management of higher volumes of wastewater.

In India, though there are few isolated experiments and pilot models for wastewater recycle and reuse for various non-potable purposes, it has not become part of the urban planning/management programme in most of the urban local bodies. In majority of the urban areas, the activities in the wastewater sector are focused mostly on wastewater disposal than recycle and reuse. Moreover, recycle and reuse of wastewater has not received much attention by the policy-decision makers.

Solid waste management and wastewater management should find a place among the top priorities of urban planning. Policy formulation, technology development and transfer, technical support, capacity development and developing and implementing IEC strategy for inculcating mind-set change are all needed.

CED's association with Ministry of Urban Development

The documents developed as part of CoE and the research outcomes were shared with MoUD, which is planning to evolve a national policy. CED included solid waste management and wastewater management as topics in the Comprehensive Capacity Building Program sponsored by the Government of India. In addition, CED has been supporting various state governments by way of providing technical and capacity development support in the area of solid waste management and wastewater management.

CED's approach towards developing sustainable cities and townships

"The two main components that drive the SWM are the strategy adopted and the technology applied. Though there is known technology for the processing of solid waste, a well-defined strategy is generally absent. Thus development of strategy is critical for effective waste management. The approach for waste management in developing sustainable cities should focus on decentralized waste management premised on the proximity theory of waste management," adds Dr. Ambat. At the same time there should be centralised systems wherever decentralised activities are neither feasible nor possible. The implementation strategy should adopt a participatory approach, ensuring total participation of the community as well as other stakeholders. There should be proper and sound institutional framework to keep the mechanism sustainable and continuously working. The responsibilities of different stakeholders like policy formulators, officials of the ULB and related parastatals, the waste generators and the NGOs having role in the process should be clearly defined and periodically reviewed.

Providing basic urban services is very important in the context of environmentally sound development. In this context solid waste management has become one of the major issues to be tackled on war footing in all the ULBs in the country. A few ULBs have implemented some activities to minimize the problems of solid wastes but lot more have to be done in this sector.

Getting adequate technical and organizational support to implement such programmes is very important. The local governments in general have no technical background to implement such activities in a scientific manner and this has been many times preventing them in implementing such programmes effectively. The availability of technology suited to the local conditions is also a major issue in many places. Even the lack of availability and access to knowledge and information at appropriate time and place is also affecting the implementation.

There is a need to be high relevance for conducting R&D in waste management to bring new technologies which should take in to consideration of the challenges and potentials of climate change and related factors

The mind-set of the waste generators and those who have responsibility for waste management at the ULB has to change. For this purpose effective IEC has to be developed and implemented. In accordance with the vision and mission of CED, to expand the realms of activities to support the society with necessary science and technology inputs especially to address the issues and challenges affecting the poor and marginalised people and also to support activities leading to sustainable development of the nation.

Box item: Mandates of CED

• To carry out research on areas related to environment and sustainable development
• To develop and transfer appropriate technology in  various environmental and developmental sectors
• To establish partnership for joint and collaborative research works
• To serve as an institution of higher learning
• To impart education, training and capacity development in relevant areas
• To formulate policy statements in sectors relevant to environment and development
• To provide consultancy services to government and multi-lateral agencies
• To conduct seminars, workshop, conferences and congresses
• To bring out journals and other publications
• To do all that is relevant to the vision and mission of the Centre.