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Solution in STP's around Bellanduru?
Written By srinidhi - 23 May, 2015
Bangalore lakes Analysis bellanduru stp froth
As a common trend these days, any alarming occurance in the city is responded with some knee jerk reactions. It can be traffic issues or frothy waterways which CATCH FIRE!
About the ailing Bellanduru lake, the 'officials' suddenly woke up and have said that all appartments, irrespective of number of dwellings(current limit is above 50 houses), will now be asked to have an STP..and with this they think the frothy lake can be saved..
I would seriously want them to first assess how the STP's are functioning in the other large/reputed appartments clusters..
There are currently many issues around operating a STP successfully:
- Waste/sludge disposal is a problem. A working STP is heavily dependent on the sludge being cleared regulalrly and finding resources to do that is difficult.
- Equipment maintenance is another pain point. Frequent break down of the heavy duty pumps is a problem and getting personel to repair it is tough
- Costs involved with all this is prohibitive and hence appartment complexes usually have defunct STP's after the initial few months/years
Unless the PCB and other govt bodies can work at solving issues with the current STP setup's, they will never be successful in keeping the lakes clean at all!
COMMENTS
decentralised plants, perhaps the answer
murali772 - 23 May, 2015 - 08:23
DEWATS (Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems) representing a technical approach rather than merely a technology package, and requiring low maintenance, can perhaps provide the answer.
Check the following video presentations:
1) Animation film showing the processes involved (click here - 2 mins)
2) Typical plant operating at the 725 bed (+ accommodation for staff, and visitors) Aravind Eye Hospital near Pondicherry (click here - 12 min, 30 secs)
Consortium for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD) Society has a base in Kengeri, Bengaluru (bangalore@cddindia.org), which operates a demonstration plant at the site.
May be Prajagalu could organise a visit.
sludge not necessarily a problem
murali772 - 24 May, 2015 - 07:06
If I understand correctly, the CDD demonstration plant in Kengeri has a regular arrangement with a BWSSB contractor, who sends his vehicle to pick up the sludge (vacuum suction), on short notice. And, after drying in yards outside the city, the sludge turns into valuable bio-fertiliser which has a ready market among the vegetable and other cash crop farmers. As such, I don't think sludge is a serious problem.
Yes, there's a bit of organising and monitoring work involved. But, once streamlined, it should be far more cost effective (apart from being environment friendly) compared to the traditional aerobic STP's, both installation-wise and operations-wise.
It would be interesting to check out if any developers have given thought to it. And, if not, why not?
Naveen - 25 May, 2015 - 03:14
As of now, I think viability of converting sludge to fertilizer is the concern as conversion /handling /transportation of sludge is costly & may not yield enough returns to make them cost efficient.
If housing societies manage their own wastes & use them internally, at least transportation costs would come down drastically.
srinidhi - 26 May, 2015 - 19:37
Yes Naveen, the processed water is used for tasks like watering gardems etc..but the sludge is not used..unlesss we can have setup like what Murali sir mentions
murali772 - 19 June, 2015 - 10:04
@ Major - I am not sure there are effective ways of measuring sewage at house-hold levels.
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