A LOT CAN HAPPEN OVER COFFEE

64.  A LOT CAN HAPPEN OVER COFFEE

I like the tag line of Café Coffee Day simply because it transforms the humble cup of coffee into an event pregnant with a myriad possibilities limited only by ones imagination.

Which brings me to the point I wish to make about the recent Direction of the bumptious Central Pollution control Board ( CPCB) of India, wallowing in its own self importance.  And why shouldn’t it ?  After all its Parent Ministry the MOEF (originally started off as the Ministry of Environment & Forests) is now derisively called the Ministry of Enjoyment and Fun by several of its own denizens.

The CPCB has promulgated new Rules with respect to quality of treated water from Sewage Treatment Plants ( STPs) across the length and breadth of India – From Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Assam to Gujarat or vice versa depending on which way your head is screwed on.  It says, and I am not joking, that Ammonia Nitrogen ( NH4-N) and Total Nitrogen in treated water from an STP shall be limited to 5 and 10 mg/L respectively and not vice versa.  I am having some enjoyment and fun from this term vice versa.  I love it.

Now, the new Rule also gives a grace period of a full 5 Years for existing STPs to tremble and obey and comply with the new norms with respect to Nitrogen and its compounds.  Why Five years ?  Well we all know how the mind of  Babudom  works :

- Do we not have Five year plans from the Nehruvian era ?

- Do we not have Governments which last for Five years ?  ( More or less)

- Is Five not a good Odd number ?

- Is Five not a Prime Number ?

- Is Five not half a decade ? 

- Is Five not Fu”nf in German ?

A Lot can happen over Five years in India  !

Well a Babu will be a Babu and will continue to be a Booboo.  Neither time nor tide has been able to change his inherent DNA.

And my serious question after all the fun and enjoyment, and rolling on the floor is over is simply this :

If the threat of Nitrogen to the Environment is really as serious as it is made out to be, why give Five full years for corrective action ? Shouldn’t it be an imperative and  the Topmost  Priority of the CPCB and the MOEF to have it in place ASAP ?  It all looks like a big joke to me from the jokers having fun and enjoyment at the expense of the common citizens of India.

It reminds me of an old print Advertisement in one of the Env. Magazines :

There is a pall of dense smoke hanging over the entire page.  And a forlorn  balloon which says in a voice almost choking “ If it is the man from the Dept. of Environment, tell him I can’t see him now”. Well said -  Avoid these folks like the Plague !

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                         April 16, 2016

PRIVATISE AND PROSPER - BWSSB STYLE

63.  PRIVATISE AND PROSPER –  BWSSB STYLE

Like the story of the visionary businessman Srihari Khoday from some 25 years ago, here is another real life recounting of my brush with another equally business minded agency – the Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board, fondly called the BWSSB :  With some officers of the Board, to be more precise.

As a very strict rule, I do not entertain requests for my services from Governmental Agencies, Parastatals, Govt. undertakings etc., for reasons well known to those who may have had the misfortune to deal with these rascally entities.

About 20 years or so ago the BWSSB came to the happy conclusion that it could not handle the K&C Valley STP ( the one behind the Karnataka Golf course ) satisfactorily enough with its own resources of men and materials.  A decision was therefore taken to entrust Operation & Maintenance of the STP to private hands.  A very laudable decision by all counts no doubt - but for one deal breaking consideration which I was about to discover.

I was pushed, sweet talked, persuaded and cajoled to pick up this tender by a very close associate of mine at that time with the solemn assurance that it was for the greater good of the society and for the benefit of the long suffering Bellandur lake which was at the receiving end of Millions of litres of sewage from half of Bangalore city.  Also, the BWSSB officer in charge of this exercise was a long time friend, a class mate of his from school and college days.  Despite initial reluctance and nervous trepidation that I felt, I steeled myself to venture into hitherto uncharted territories : If Captain Kirk and his crew of Starship Enterprise can do it, so can I.

I studied word by word, para by para and page by page the tender document until I could recite the tender backwards. This method of dissecting a tender document  to the last comma and full stop was drilled into me in my first job in India with Dorr-Oliver Inc. immediately on my return from the USA.  And as prescribed in Section 3.5 of the Tender document, I visited the  STP for the customary site inspection.  From more than a  Kilometer away on the lonely Wind Tunnel Road,  I was unerringly guided to the spot by the ever increasing stench of untreated sewage. No google map was required to home in to this STP.

The STP itself presented a picture of a major disaster struck area.  Dismantled and stripped down pumps and forlorn motors strewn around helter skelter ; Sewage overflowing from channels and drains, with swarms of mosquitoes proliferating in this happy breeding ground ; Less than 30 % of Surface aerators which deliver Oxygen to the bugs which treat sewage, churning the surface of tanks, which in itself was a minor miracle.  There was not a single human soul in sight.  I beat a hasty retreat from  this unholy hell hole, now firmly determined that no amount of pushing, sweet talking, persuasion or cajoling will make me participate in this tender.

The final kick in my ass for this crazy adventurism was delivered by the BWSSB classmate himself who took me aside and gently broke to me the unwritten clause and condition of the tender for privatisation of O&M of the STP.

Apparently the STP generated a lot of organic sludge from its settling tanks which were the only units which worked in the STP,  and  which was good farmland manure.  And in those days, when Bangalore city was not the urban conglomeration and concrete jungle that it is today, there were farmlands and farmers in close vicinity to the STP.  These farmers paid Rs. 400 per tractor load to take away the manure for their use.  The total amount per day thus collected ran into several thousands of Rupees.

The classmate from the BWSSB then assured me that the only Service Level Agreement they would hold me to was that the entire proceeds of sale of organic manure from the STP should be off the books and passed back to the officers who were good enough to make the privatisation exercise happen.  There was no further requirement from the STP and no questions asked.  Bellandur lake be damned.

Three cheers for a Happy New Year  and all hail Privatisation – BWSSB style.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                                                April 14, 2016

HARVEST NITROGEN IN SEWAGE - DON'T KILL IT

62.  HARVEST NITROGEN IN SEWAGE – DON’T WASTE MONEY TO KILL IT !

This Commentary is a rejoinder to a recent Notification from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board revising standards for quality of treated sewage.  More specifically the KSPCB has introduced NH4-N ( Ammonia Nitrogen) and Total Nitrogen and set limits of 5 mg/L and 10 mg/L respectively for these parameters in treated domestic sewage.  The new standards are made applicable to all STP’s including those in Residential Apartment Complexes, Commercial Complexes and the Large STP’s of Urban Local Bodies ( ULB) such as City Municipal Corporation, Town Municipal Corporation etc. in Karnataka. 

The KSPCB  takes refuge under the plea that the Notification has been issued following a Direction from the Central Pollution Control Board – Delhi ( CPCB ) dt. 21-08-2015 to enforce these new Rules.

Let me explain why I feel both agencies, and the KSPCB in particular have missed the Wood for the trees and why this is a Knee Jerk reaction similar to several others which we have now come to expect from such “Expert” bodies constituted by the Government.  Md. Bin Tughlaq would have been immensely pleased to have such worthies in his Durbar.

1. From a reading of the brief narration given of the CPCB Direction, it is clear that the Rules must be made applicable to Large STP’s of ULB’s and not to distributed , decentralized small, mini and micro STP’s in Residential apartment Complexes.

2. Has the KSPCB got any expert technical opinion or has it conducted any public consultation before applying the Rules across the board to all STP’s ?

3. Has the KSPCB done even a cursory study on the technical and practical feasibility of enforcing these Rules in the Micro and Mini STP’s ?

4. Has the KSPCB explored other alternative technologies, methods and means of reducing Nitrogen pollution in the lakes and water bodies ?  Is Nitrogen control in the STP at great cost, expenditure of energy and chemicals the only solution ?

The Answers to all these questions can only be a resounding NO. 

Here is an alternative method  to beneficially harvest Nitrogen in sewage and make money instead of pouring money down the STP drain.

About 25 years ago, I was summoned by Sri. Srihari Khoday, the liquor Baron of the day in  Karnataka to study  treatment plants in their breweries and distilleries.  When the main discussions concluded, as an aside, Mr. Khoday asked me for my opinion on the technical feasibility of harvesting Water Hyacinth ( Eichhornia Crassipes) on a commercial scale from lakes in Bangalore, more particularly Bellandur ( Yes – Bellandur was polluted even in those days).  Water Hyacinth takes up huge quantities of Nitrogen and phosphorus for growth and becomes biomass which then can be anaerobically digested to generate Methane and energy therefrom and supply power to nearby industries. The largest consumer in the vicinity was Hindustan Aeronautics Limited ( HAL).  Twenty five years ago, this struck me as a revolutionary idea, and out of the box thinking of a visionary businessman with great commercial acumen.

Maybe the Babus in  those days were equally insular to practical ideas and solutions as they are even to this day : Srihari Khoday’s idea could not find wings to take off.  I have myself proposed very economical, practical and executable solutions to resuscitating defunct STP’s in Bangalore to all the authorities in the Government directly concerned.  Needless to say, they have fallen only on deaf ears.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                                      April 13, 2016

Abstract

Water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, growth and nutrient uptake rates, as influenced by different N sources and N transformations, were measured using microcosm aquaculture systems. Net productivity was highest in the system receiving equal amounts of $NH_{4}{}^{+}$ and NO3 - (at 10 mg N l-1 each) and decreased in the order of NO3 -, $NH_{4}{}^{+}$, urea (added at 20 mg N l-1 each), and methane digestor effluent (at 6 mg N l-1). During the first 7-wk study (average ambient air temperature was 26-28°C), biomass yields were in the range of 19-53 g dry wt $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$, while between the 8th and 12th wk (average ambient air temperature was 16-22°C), biomass yields were in the range of 10-33 g dry wt $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$. In the systems with either $NH_{4}{}^{+}$ or NO3 -, or both added in equal proportions, about 14-20% of the total yield was contributed by roots, whereas in the system with urea and digestor effluent, roots contributed about 23 and 44% of the total yield, respectively. Nitrogen and P uptake per unit area followed trends similar to biomass yields. Nitrogen uptake rates were in the range of 533-2,161 mg N $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$ for the systems receiving $NH_{4}{}^{+}$, NO3 -, and urea, while uptake rates were in the range of 124-602 mg N $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$ for the system receiving methane digestor effluent. Phosphorus uptake rates were found to be in the range of 59-542 mg P $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$. Under the most favorable conditions, maximum recorded biomass yield was 53 g dry wt $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$, with N and P removal rate of 2,161 mg N $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$ and 542 mg P $m^{-2}\ day^{-1}$, indicating the potential of water hyacinth to produce large amounts of biomass which can be potentially used as a feedstock to produce methane.

Economic Botany © 1983 New York Botanical Garden Press