The Hindu : Front Page : Irradiate with joy: bio-fertiliser from processed sewage sludge

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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Irradiate with joy: bio-fertiliser from processed sewage sludge

K.V.S. Madhav

Water board joins hands with BARC to treat city's massive sewerage

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) is joining hands with the nation's premier nuclear and radiation research institution Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for irradiation of sewage sludge of the city for reuse as bio-fertiliser.

BARC's radiation treatment of sewage sludge to produce pathogen-free sludge that could be manufactured into a value-added bio-fertiliser was highly successful in Vadodara.

In association with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, it had commissioned a sludge hygienisation research irradiator there — said to be the only one-of-its-kind in the world.

Disposal of sludge, which is growing by the day with the city population explosion, is a colossal, unenviable and many a time, next-to-impossible exercise, says board Managing Director K.S. Jawahar Reddy.

Making it happen

BARC scientists who made a presentation on the Vadodara model to board officials last week established that a radiation dose of 3 kilogray (kGy) from Cobalt-60 source to the sewage sludge ensures removal of 99.99 per cent pathogenic bacteria, which are the cause for typhoid, dysentery and cholera.

The radiation-processed sludge, once freed of pathogens, can be used as manure to improve soil fertility.

With five new sewerage treatment plants of 600 million litres per day (MLD) capacity coming up in the city as a part of the Rs. 339.08-crore `Save Musi Plan' — Amberpet (339 MLD), the biggest in Asia, Nagole (172 MLD), Nallacheruvu and Nandimusalaiguda (30 MLD) each and Jiaguda (21 MLD) — the task becomes that much bigger.

"We are carrying out only primary treatment of sewage at the sewerage treatment plants (STPs) now. Yet, sludge disposal is a big challenge, given the enormous quantum being produced.

With the new STPs coming up, this is the most sustainable way of disposing of sludge. The farming community will also benefit," Mr. Reddy says.

Increase in yield

The water board authorities have roped in experts from Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University for an interaction with the BARC scientists. "We are also talking to Agriculture and Horticulture departments as they have to take the sludge fertiliser to farmers," he says.

The Vadodara model has proved the efficacy of sludge fertiliser with a 20 per cent increase in yield, besides a marked improvement in soil texture and quality, an official says. "A board team with representatives of other departments will visit Vadodara shortly," he adds.

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