Strategic Action Plan - International Environmental Technology Centre

Although the numbers of vermi-composting plants are high the operational number is very low.
There is no information on the capacities and efficiencies of these plants. Some of the major
constraints in successful implementation of decentralized treatment plants can be enlisted as below:
• Space Constraints: The decentralized treatments require space and hence are not applicable
at individual house-hold levels. These treatment facilities can be successfully implemented at
society-level, road level or community levels in common plots or at transfer stations. With this
constraint in view the PMC has invited for Expression of Interest statements from various
technology providers to set up a pilot biogas plant of 50MT capacity at the Transfer station.
There are nine transfer stations in the city of Pune. Out of the nine transfer stations two are
categorized as large and seven are categorized as small. Two of these transfer stations are non
functional due to various reasons.
• Odour Problems: The decentralized treatment primarily treats the wet, bio-degradable waste
and hence the collection of such wastes in the neighbourhood creates odour problems.
• Disease Vectors: There are issues of rodents, flies and other disease vectors that thrive on
the wet waste.
• Technology Constraints: There is an absence of technological know-how and process
standardization with respect to decentralized treatment. The process are largely empirical and
are based on thumb-rules and not exact science. Also for the proper maintenance of the set-up
plant there is a need for training a special cadre of man-power.
• Weak Markets: The products resulting from decentralized treatment plants such as biogas
and manure do not have a market potential. Owing to the lack of demand lesser number of
people are getting into this field.
• Policies: In spite of the mention for the provision of the vermi-composting pits in the
Development Control Regulation, the actual implementation will occur only if there are other
policies to support. In order to make concepts such as City Farming a success the
requirements for the same should be factored into the construction practices. E.g. the waterproofing,
slope design of the terraces should be made taking into consideration the city
farming or terrace gardening concept. The various technologies existing in Pune are described
in Box 3.5.
Box 3.5: Decentralized treatment Methods in Pune
Significant work related to decentralized treatment is being done in Pune. Vermi-composting and
biogas plants are the major options being looked at with regards to decentralized options for
treating waste. Organizations such as Ennora, Mailhem and Excel industries are involved with the
waste treatment business along with volunteers such as Latatai Shrikhande and Jyoti Shah.
INORA involves the use of earthworm technology to convert waste into wormi-compost. The
experts suggest that the vermin-composting plants are viable only if the generation capacities are
Strategic Action Planning for Pune 54