Better waste, water and energy management for Bangalore apartments

Transcription

1 Better waste, water and energy management for Bangalore apartments An Open House organised by The Alternative and ApartmentADDA brought together experts, practitioners and apartment champions from across the city to discuss practical systems and methods to steer apartments towards managing resources and complexes more sustainably. A large number of individuals and apartment owners participated in the Green Storey: Open House workshop organized by The Alternative along with ApartmentADDA at Teri, Domlur. Bangalore stands third in the list of most populous cities in India. The population is growing rapidly and is about to touch

2 the 1 crore figure very soon. The fallout of this unplanned growth is seen in the garbage crisis, water scarcity and frequent power cuts faced in the city today. And this scarcity is amplified in the 2 lakh odd apartments and highrises that dot the city s skyline today. Managing the city better translates to all stakeholders planning and implementing initiatives in their own homes, apartments and campuses. And addressing apartments and their sustainability story was a Saturday 1/2 day workshop on Self- Sufficient Apartments: An Open House, organised by The Alternative, together with ApartmentADDA. The June 15 Apartment Open House at TERI, Domlur, brought experts and practitioners together with apartment champions tackling the challenging issues of waste, water and energy efficiency in their complexes. The workshop was attended by over 75 apartments spread across the city and at varying levels of initiatives in their complexes. The workshop started off with an introductory note from Sangeetha Banerjee of ApartmentADDA, who talked about the increasing trend of apartment complexes in the city chosing to venture into their own initiatives to manage their functioning and resources better. Featuring eminent speakers like Manivannan P, MD, BESCOM and Namma Bengalurean Awardee, Kalpana Kar, BBMP expert committee on Solid Waste Management, Dr. Anant Kodavasal, STP expert, and other apartment champions who have led the eco-friendly initiatives in their communities, the workshop was structured around practical solutions and initiatives that have been taken across the city and how they could be replicated. The water track was an in-depth session on the two most pressing problems faced by apartments today sewage treatment and water metering. Most apartments face challenges in retrofitting and maintaining their domestic sewage treatment plants

3 that they are mandated to under KSPCB norms. Water metering on the other hand is as an emerging area of interest for a lot of apartments that are looking to pay as per consumption and combat the problem of mounting costs for tanker water. Start your own initiative P Manivannan, MD, BESCOM, took the audience by surprise by dedicating his talk to organizing a little game where the audience was split into teams and then made to perform certain tasks blindfolded by walking through obstacles. The game emphasized how the 3 Actors: the Government, the civil society and the private sector played their roles and what their incentives were with contributing to the larger good in general. BESCOM MD, P. Manivannan organized a little game to emphasize the role of government, civil society and the private sector in society. Don t wait for the government, start your own initiatives

4 urged P Manivannan, encouraging citizens to start initiatives on their own and tackle issues that were important to them, with the Government giving them complete support. The Bescom MD announced that solar initiatives were being worked on by KREDL and rooftop panels and other infrastructure will be up and running in a year. He also announced the intent of BESCOM to work with select non-profits and civil society organisations collaboratively in the next 5 years to achieve a city that obtains its power sustainably. Water metering for better consumption In his presentation on water metering and measurement in a 32- apartment complex, Vinod Damodaran of Imeters & solutions said, Scarcity of water and water tanker prices are key reasons that have led people to explore water metering. He talked about the reduction of the water bill by 40% over the time span of a year. Installing a meter reduces the wastage of water as people are more cautious while using it, he said. Kannan Venkitachalam of Manas Sarovar Apartments with 32 apartments emphasized on how maintaining a log and an on line database has brought down the consumption of water in the society. Read more on efforts and achievements of Venkitachalam regarding water metering here. The question on ROI with water metering brought up the interesting debate on why conserve water. Avinash Krishnamurthy of Biome Solutions said that water harvesting, metering and other methods of water conservation have their impetus in one thing: drying borewells and exploited groundwater. Our boundary walls don t extend below the ground. Our aquifers are all shared and we are drinking off the same pool.

5 It behoves us to be better managers of our own water for our own and the common good, he added as he focused on a larger context of water management. Here are the other stories that tell you more about water management, read more about the efforts of Fern Paradise, Shriram Samskruti, Prestige Aster, Ittina Abby, SJR Redwoods, Brigade Millenium Cassia, Sobha Quartz. Retro-fitting STPs Dr. Ananth Kodavasal talks about reuse of STPs at TERI Dr Ananth Kodavasal, an expert on water recycling, talked about ways to evaluate, retro-fit and maintain STPS in existing apartments. Bangalore has 2,000 decentralized

6 community STPs, he said. STP units typically cost about 20 lakhs to install. A 100 KLD requirement is when the mix of capital and operating costs is offset by the savings through recycled water, he said. Retrofitting is possible in older apartments. Installation costs for a complex with units including STP, overhead tanks and plumbing, is about lakhs. Operating cost is approx Rs for treating 130 KL per day, mentioned Kodavasal. STPs require a huge amount of regular maintenance for it to function efficiently. Every 7 months, the water must be sent for testing, said Subbu Hegde from COPOA. 1 lakh litres per day is the point when an apartment can balance Capex and Opex for an STP, said Kodavasal. Check out the presentation which discusses design and operation of a STP in depth here. Sajin Kunhambu from Oasis Breeze had a detailed discussion about how their apartment set up water tariffs. Read more on tariff settings and operation of water meters in the presentation here MD Simha of the KSPCB talked about the various laws that citizens were governed by, that dictated that they do not cause pollution due to sewage and other reasons. Polluting the environment is a criminal offence, it is a techno-legal issue, he said. Read more on the legal aspect of environment concerns in construction project in this presentation. The second half of the workshop focused on waste and energy. Rathish Balakrishnan of the The Alternative introduced the session by stating the current status with waste in the city today: that there was too much of it, it was highly mixed and hence offered little value otherwise possible with recycling, that there were too few filters, and that every stakeholder, from households to the garbage contractors had a role to play in the solution.

7 Kasa Muktha the city s efforts to manage its waste Kalpana Kar, BBMP expert committee, talks about Kasamukhta Bangalore campaign and waste management Kalpana Kar talked about Kasa Muktha, an initiative between BBMP and Wake Up Clean Up Bangalore to manage waste more effectively through initiatives in each of the 198 wards. The most important part of the equation is segregation Hum Do, Humare Do when it comes to bins, she said. Kar outlined the number of initiatives that the city was taking up to handle its waste from a PIL mandating segregation at source at the policy level to ward-wise pilots on waste management, setting up and maintenance of DWCC centres that collect and sell dry waste, the Kasa Muktha award for a ward for waste management, the BCIC awards for industries, polluter pays norms and more. Read more on Kasa mukhta and waste management in the presentation here.

8 Kar also mentioned that a penal provision amendment is close to being accepted by the government for those who do not segregate waste at source. She also discussed other policy initiatives which included elimination of SWM cess for apartments managing their own waste and an Extended Producer Responsibility bill to be piloted for corporates and companies. We need to tie up the three ends: awareness, planning and implementation, she said. Madhu Rammoorthy of Brigade Gateway, a 1250 apartment complex, talked about waste segregation and composting efforts at their apartments along with the challenges they face. The apartment segregates waste into 7 categories which is a formidable effort in itself. Non-segregators are penalised by their waste not getting collected. The complex composts its wet waste inhouse to produce rich manure, which isn t quite great news. There is no point taking great efforts to create compost and then dumping it due to the lack of market that can sell it, said Shankar, emphasizing the lack of a sustainable compost market. Brigade Gateway is training maids to spread awareness about segregation. The committee at the complex capture data on the waste collected and revenues are generated out of recycled dry waste, penalise apartments who are not segregating by not collecting waste. Read more on waste management and composting at Brigade Gateway in their presentation here. Waste management solution providers Saahas launched a pilot with apartments at the event. They also announced an audit at discounted rates for apartments looking to evaluate their current waste management. They can be reached via the Saahas FB page for more details on the pilot. Bina from Indiranagar, said: This is a great initiative, especially for people like us who don t know where to start and what to do. I appreciate the whole concept and agree with the ratio which means 20% of the people are doing work

9 of other 80%, we should have more participants in such kind of workshops. Kannan Venkitachalam from Mana Sarovar apartments talks about water metering and the steps he has taken to restrict excessive usage of water. Great event, it is inspiring and gives action-oriented solutions to people who are actually interested, said Ashish Patel of Embassy Tranquil. Overall, the apartment Open House offered a peek into practical solutions, case studies, expert perspectives and more for management committees looking to make their apartments more sustainable and better managed.

10 The ½-day workshop delivered the message to take the initiative and bring the change. This piece is a part of Paint Your Green campaign for World Environment Day to Bring Sustainability Home.