Solid waste management on top

President initiates program
 

by Chanuka Mannapperuma

Municipal, Solid Waste Management (MSWM) has now become a major issue in Sri Lanka. The experience of the ratepayers in the past and also present is not a welcome phenomena but depicts a dismal picture.

A large amount of garbage is collected near the roadside and in many public places for days, during sun and rain unattended. Some times solid waste is piled on the roadside, left in garbage trucks, carts and dumping places, continuing a deplorable blot on the landscape. People themselves are to be blamed for the dismal situation.

The Ministry of Plan Implementation was directed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to identify the problem of solid waste management of the Western Province and provide a solution to this perennial problem.

The Ministry sought the views of various stakeholder in he solid waste management such as municipality officials, Central Environment Authority, residents and industries.

Land issue

The Ministry had several meetings with the investors who had shown willingness to invest in SWM and other key players. However, availability of suitable lands for disposal of solid waste posed a problem. When most people talk about garbage, what they visualise is the collection of their waste. Collection is only a part of waste management which virtually everyone sees and is involved with.

"Collection is also by far the largest cost element in most Municipal Solid Waste Management Systems (SWMS) accounting for 70-90% of the costs. Collection and street sweeping together comprise the single largest category of expenditure in municipal budgets. Failure or inadequacy of collection, can lead to threats to public health, states the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Plan and Implementation, Upali Dahanayaka.

Waste collection

Waste collection and street sweeping are often done in a highly inefficient manner Workers are often poorly motivated, untrained, under-compensated, and unnoticed. Further, obstacles to efficiency are obsolete or nonfunctional equipment and routes which have not kept pace with urban growth.

According to the Secretary, many collection activities involve the informal sector. Unregistered micro-or small-business individuals, squatters subsist by culling valuable materials from the waste stream and processing them into intermediate or consumer products, the Chairman stressed. There are many areas of the municipality that receive no collection at all.

The boundary between collection of materials for disposal and recovery are blurred and recoverable materials may be separated during the collection process.

A common aspect of collection is the chronic and acute lack of adequate service, particularly in poor or marginal areas.

Mostly collection is performed by municipal employees or firms under contract by MCs. For efficiency reasons, collection tends to occur early in the morning, using closed compactor trucks.

In parts of Municipal areas residents carry their waste to a container at a "communal collection point." Communal collection is very common, particularly in areas that are difficult to serve, or in poor areas that municipal authorities are willing or unable to serve with door-to-door waste collection.

Plastic bags

In places with community transfer, residents use bags or baskets for carrying waste to the containers. Plastic bags, which are increasingly available, are becoming a problem for composting.

Primary collection vehicles bring their waste to a transfer station and dump it.It is then transferred with out being compressed to other vehicles for a longer haul to a disposal site.

Transfer which may includes a short storage period also provides a point of access to the waste or materials stream and an opportunity to remove certain materials or perform processing such as shredding, compacting, screening,wetting or drying.

Almost all forms of collection are based on a collector or collection crew which moves through the collection service areas with a vehicle for collecting the waste or materials. The collection vehicle selected has been appropriate to the terrain, the type and density of generation points, the roads and ways it must travel, the type of waste or the kind of materials it will be used to collect; the strength, stature, and capability of the crew that will work with it; and the point and manner of discharge of its load.

Muscle-powered carts are inexpensive and easy to build and maintain, compared with other vehicle. In many cases muscle-powered vehicles represent the soundest mix of capital, labour, and available resources for waste or materials collection.

There are certain disadvantages of muscle-powered carts as well.

In the city "just-in-time" collection systems, operates where residents bring out their wastes at the time the collection vehicle reaches a certain spot and signals its presence.

The size, capability, and motivation of the crew is a basic factor in determining efficiency of collection. Some variations on sound practice are described below.

Land fill is the ultimate repository of a city's MAW after all other MSWM options have been exercised. It ends with the coordination of MSWM program from waste reduction and resource recovery through collection, transfer and ultimate disposal into the integrated system. Currently Moratuwa Municipality uses the Kadirana land fill at the Kesbewa Pradeshiya Sabha. This is a marshy land now acquired for the purpose of a land fill as ultimate repository for Moratuwa MAW. This has also the advantages and disadvantages too.

Future program

The Secretary added that the future program of the landfill includes composting which diverts organic matter from the land fill. This can reduce gas and leachate risks at the landfill and extend the facility. It is expected to perform these operations close to the site of waste generation".

All these MCs and UCs have sophisticated equipment for disposal of MSW. However poor management has created the MSW a problem.

He noted however in the interest of the population MC and UCs, it is important to install a viable solid waste disposal system in view of the gravity of the problem and the sooner the better.

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