Landfills and municipal sewerage produce methane as a result of which the roots of trees planted in those areas come in contact with the gas and the trees die.
Sivaji Park at Sivajipalem-MVP Colony was developed on 16 acres of land, including eight acres of landfill in 1997.
Fifteen years having passed, the trees have come to a state where their roots touch the layers that produce methane striking a death knell, Member of Prime Minister’s Monitoring Committee on JNNURM R.V. Rama Rao said at the workshop on ‘Appropriate solid waste management options for small and medium towns in India’ here on Monday. It happens with marine soils also.
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A methane recovery system from the landfill must be in place to prevent the death of trees.
A project manager from Bhopal confirmed it and said now they are planning to plant trees of limited height.
However, GVMC Executive Engineer K.V.N. Ravi, who executed the park work transforming eight acres of landfill that formed part of the park into greenery, said at the time of taking up the work, on the advice of a professor from Andhra University, tubes were put in the soil that provided a vent to the methane produced. Before that, the landfill existed for about 15-20 years.
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Cluster approach
Prof. Rama Rao said that to have large quantities of garbage that would facilitate generation of power, a cluster approach was required as a few cities and towns would together produce the quantity required. In view of the difficulties involved in the separation of garbage before disposing it, formation of resident welfare associations must be taken up.
This fact was underlined by the Prime Minister also. Describing landfills as an environmental problem, he, however, suggested that they should be closer to cities in view of the mounting fuel.
Use of mineral
Use of a natural mineral and an absorbent, zeolite, will reduce the quantity of water in the garbage and as a result, its lifting can be staggered, he suggested.