E-Dialogues 22.0 | Digitalisation in Waste Management
Waste Segregation & Digitisation at the centre of new India Urban Update and All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), in association with United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), and 3R aste Foundation organised 22nd edition of E-Dialogues on the topic, “Digitisation in Waste Management” on February 12 Team Urban Update
D
r Kulwant Singh, moderator of the session, started by mentioning how the third decade of the 21st century has a larger focus on digitalisation in all sectors of economy and human activities, and that COVID-19 pandemic really reflected on the ultimate usage of digital technology. He mentioned the launch of the ‘Waste to Wealth’ Mission by the Government of India in August 2020, to identify, develop, and deploy technologies for better management of waste, recycling of material, and to extend resources of value from it. He also mentioned the specific allocation of budget given to faecal sludge management, source segregation of garbage, wastewater treatment, reduction in single use plastic, etc in the Budget 2021-22, which he said showed that the centre is giving importance to this sector. The panel of the webinar consisted of five eminent scholars including, CP Singh, Co-founder, Eswach Integrated
42 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
Solutions Pvt Ltd; Dr BR Yadav, Scientist, Technology Development Centre, Council of Scientific & Indian Research -National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIRNEERI); Dr Debishree Khan, Director’s Research Cell, CSIR-NEERI; Dr Shalini Sharma, Co-founder and CEO, Sanshodhan: An E-Waste exchange; and Dr Swapnil Patel, Assistant Nodal Officer, Surat Municipal Corporation. Dr Yadav’s session on digitalization in the sector of wastewater management elaborated how the digitalization can be introduced in two ways, including real time monitoring of the aquatic bodies along with the discharge released by several industries and municipal bodies. His presentation elaborated on three types of wastewater, which is categorized on the basis of its source domestic (residential, shops, offices, from toilets, sinks, and bathrooms), industrial, and storm water (from rain, fields). He talked about how even domestic wastewater is of two types – grey water (from sinks, baths, and washing machines which has low pollutant load) and black water (from
flushed toilets and has high pollutant load). He added that currently in India, there is no provision for segregation of these two types of domestic wastewater. Dr Yadav elaborated on the three components of a wastewater treatment plant – collection, treatment, and disposal. He further talked about how digitisation can be put use into effective functioning of these sectors. According to him, in the collection sector, realtime quality measurement can be introduced using which, flow and quality of wastewater can be measured and recorded. Next step would be, he said, to assess quality parameters in the treatment process to save energy. He highlighted the limitations of current methods of measuring quality of wastewater and said that “to overcome all the (current) issues, we need physical instruments which can give instant results.” He also shed light on the various processes of treating wastewater. He then appreciated the various advancements that have been made towards digitisation of wastewater management and explained its field adaptation. Dr Singh then invited Dr Debishree Khan to throw light on the topic of digitalisation of urban solid waste management (DUSWM). She started her presentation by defining waste, its management and its challenges and later highlighted the components of solid waste management and scope for its improvement. She also talked about the ‘Waste to Wealth’ idea, explaining how technology driven management of domestic, agricultural and industrial waste can lead to commercial benefits. She stressed on the need for innovative waste management and described
