Monsoon, pissing rain in Kerala, tomorrow shooting beg of an environmental documentary!

Back to Kochi, halles of rain!

Swimming pools everywhere and raindrops...

Raindrops keep falling on my head

[originally by B. J. Thomas]

Raindrops keep falling on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are falling on my head, they keep falling

So I just did me some talkin' to the sun
And I said I didn't like the way he' got things done
Sleepin' on the job
Those raindrops are falling on my head, they keep falling

But there's one thing I know
The blues he sends to meet me won't defeat me
It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep falling on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Crying's not for me
Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothing's worrying me

Butch cassidy and the sundance kid. paul newman and robert redford making us forget our humdrum existence as only they did. Irresistible

Back to this hospital, AIMS, this time not to take cancer tests!

Meeting a team of cameramen, journalists to shoot tomorrow the first sessions of an environmental documentary!



Great to follow hard core academia studies by proper field trips, interviews...






Just like this great visit of Coimbatore facilities of SWM these past 2 days: commissioner's office, IAS, Engineers, Corporates dealing with waste:

Generation side:

·      Coimbatore population considered from 100 wards: 15 to 17 lks of people (1,5 to 1,7 Mio inhabitants taken into account)

·      Generation levels: Globally: 700t to 900t per day (up to 1100 t per day),  Number of households: 4,25lks, People under the PTL: 40 to 50%,  Generation from Low level clusters: 200 to 300g/cap/day, Generation from High level clusters: 800 to 1000g/cap/day, Average: 550g/cap/day

3 kinds of waste:

1.     SWM

2.     Biomedical waste: delt with by Pollution Control

3.     Industrial waste: mostly recycled and reused, scrap of iron…

Collection side:

2 steps:  Primary collection at source transported to Transfer Stations, Secondary collection from Transfer Stations transported to Velaloor: Vehicles used for collection between ½ t up to 21t

Step 1 handled by Coimbatore municipality: duty to collect from households to Transfer stations, nb sanitary workers up to 3000 people + 1000 outsourced

CCMC trucks max 4t per vehicule, max 60 kms return, trips, max 1 or 2 trips per day

 Sweeping of streets: every day in the morning

 Step 2 handled by concessioner:  transport from Transfer zones to Land fill, land fill operations, now UPL + BEIL, contract representing 30% of total costs of SWM budget, integrated project

3 main yards for Transfer Stations, 1 additional to come

PPP (Public Private Partnership) between CCMC (Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation)

Today collaboration: CCMC+UPL+ BEIL

UPL major Corp: United Posperous Ltd, with Tatva branch: environmental branch

Velaloor facility and dump fill site: UPL managing and responsible for it

·      Pre-processing: segregation of major items (big items, biodegradables, pillows, bed matrases…) processing and land fill facility

·      No vermicomposting

·      Only ‘City’ compost

Waste generated then treatment> innert material, disposed in landfill

Sanitary landfill with linear system started with impermeable layers

800t to 900t/day

200 to 250 trucks per day (smallest 1/2t up to 18t)

·      Receiving area: manual segregation: 20 people, major recyclables, matrasses, pillows, long trees branches…all material that cannot go to conveyers

·      Conveyers: only small material:

1^st filtering goes through 2 stages, 2 outputs: >100mm, <100mm

<100mm mostly organic, biodeg

Recyclables venders: plastic, bottles, metals, coco shells…

Compost: 4 weeks windrow process, with composting agents: EM, and Natural Vell SWM, from Clever Organics

2^nd stage: feeding, refinement section: 50mm filters, plastic eliminated

then destoner machine

Old material forming layers+ closing soil

Main Pb: soft plastic

Turning of piles weekly

Business model:

Composting sold as Tatva Shakti

300t to 400t per month: 2000Rs to 4000Rs per ton

RDF (Refused derived Fuel): 20 to 30t /month: 1000Rs to 2000Rs per ton

Other part of Dump fill:

Closing area with old waste from former times

Dump fill with 2 closing sites: 1 already achieved

1 in process: basic layers: geotex layers: prevent linkage and penetration

2 other closures in the city, beautiful gardens, landscaping…

Employees in Dump fill:

100 to 120, wages: 300 to 400Rs per day

Projects:

RDF plant

And in the back of this picture, where workers live, on the reclaimed area, in front of the new hill to be closed up... not really... high-genic!




I now need to collect raw datas, put them into a statistical model, a linear regression, publish datas on 59 cities in India, 28 states and run a comparison between 2 examples with deeper analysis... suggesting other ways to engage communities, to motivate, treat workers...

Hoping this is all public-able material in Intl Journals and conferences...