Role of KSPCB
S. Venkatesh Shekhar, a Masters in Environmental Planning, will be speaking on the role of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board in helping associations operate sewage treatment plants. “The importance of STP as a sustainable technology makes sense only when one can follow KSPCB rules and regulations,” he says. Recycling is the green mantra where in organic waste composting and waste segregation at source come into force.
Venkatesh Shekhar will touch aspects that will explain how the menace of bad garbage handling impacts the environment adversely.
Impact of pollutants
Ananth S. Kodavasal, who holds a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, U.S., will take up wastewater pollutants and their harmful impact on the environment and legal compliance of sewage treatment. The importance of treating wastewater for improving the quality of ground water, public health and long-term sustainability and technical aspects of waste-water treatment are topics that Kodavasal would touch on.
“We need to guide people on the characterisation of waste-water on the basis of its physical, chemical and biological properties. The importance of understanding these characterisations is to assess compliance and determine the treatment required. This is where design and engineering of a waste-water treatment plant comes into focus,” says Kodavasal.
Some advanced waste-water treatment methods such as activated carbon adsorption, nutrient removal, reverse osmosis and ultra violet radiation are methods getting worldwide acceptance. There are acts and rules on environment protection which one needs to comply with for sewage treatment units and these would be discussed at the forum.
Re-cycling
Septuagenarian N.S. Ramakanth, co-founder, Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), was formerly the RWA President of Kumara Park West. Volunteering to educate residents, BBMP Environment Officers and Zonal Officers, he will address communities at the CommonFloor RightStep forum where he will enumerate the journey of waste from the moment you throw it out of your door till it actually gets re-cycled.
From how waste could affect people when carelessly thrown about to ways of segregation would be discussed with examples. Ramakanth says, “Typically a household of four generates about two kg of waste daily, of which half is wet waste.
Dry waste, which usually comprises plastic, paper, metal, aluminium cans and milk sachets, can be recycled if segregated, which has to be at source itself, in order to be able to process it further. Although we have rag pickers doing this at the dumping grounds it’s neither efficient nor fully effective. So we need to have clear-cut guidelines on how the energy can be generated from waste without wasting resources. It is an art.”
Legal angle
Practising advocate Mithun Gerahalli, with a good understanding of consumer rights with respect to land and housing laws, advises Builders and Apartment Owners’ Associations on transition and handover of management and corpus fund, and setting up of Residents’ Associations.
At the Forum he will educate the audience on all these facts and talk about the purpose of Karnataka Ownership Flats (Regulation of Promotion, Construction, Sale, Management, Transfer) Act 1972; and the obligations of a promoter and the rights of purchasers under this act.
Gerahalli will also share his views on the lacunae in existing legislations.
