PHE Consultants professional engineers, technocrats, town planners and management consultants. Associate consultants

Meat processing & abattoir waste management

Solid waste management

Community development &
slum sanitation

Waste water system

Privatized o & m,
training and manuals

Water supply

UPGRADE OF LANDFILL OPRATIONS
AND MANAGEMENT FOR
MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF GREATER MUMBAI

PHE Consultants have executed this assignment in association with M/s. R.V Anderson Associates limited (RVA), Ottawa, Canada. The project was funded by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Mumbai city generates, daily, around 4000 tones of solid Waste and 2000 tones of debris, which are grounds. This unplanned dumping has been going on for years, and has considerably reduced the space available for disposal. The remaining life of dumping grounds is assessed to be 5years at current waste generation levels. Therefore there is an urgent need for adopting modern management techniques, equipment and better landfilling techniques to increase the life of the dumping grounds.

Mumbai city very congested and surrounded by creeks and sea on all sides. Therefore,
there is no space available for landfill sites. The dumping of solid waste far outside City
limits would be uneconomical due to enormous transportation costs.

PHE-RVA team was assigned the task of carrying out a detailed study of the entire solid waste collection and disposal system in Mumbai and provide a 'Masterplan' along with recommendations for improving the exiting system. This included a detailed assessment of current techniques, possibility of recycling waste, segregation at source, composting of organic waste, mining of compost and scientific Landfill (vertical landfilling) best suited to Mumbai condition.

The Scope of work included Survery of Solid Waste generation from various sources, topographic survery and soil testing at dumping grounds, satellite photography for location of alternative sites for dumping of solid Waste, Re-engineering of refuse dumping process at dumping grounds to prevent pollution of surrounding areas and at the same time to increase the life of the dumping grounds.

PHE-RVA team has also, as a part of this assignment, carried out a comprehensive review of the arrangement for disposal of hospital waste in Mumbai. The 17000 General Practitioners, 1200 nursing homes and about 100 large Hospitals generate 20 to 25 tonnes of Hospital waste per day at present (1998) in Mumbai. Hospital waste is considered to be Hazardous to the Environment besides posing a serious threat of contamination if not handled & disposed of in a scientific manner.

The team made thorough study of area wise generational Hospital waste and recommended scientific and and organized methods of segregation, storage, collection and disposal, considering the current Legislation, Regulation on Environment Protection and pollution control; Health and Safety being of prime concern today.