66.
THE WISE MEN OF THE TAC
THE
PLUMBING CONSULTANT
Every
new project that comes up in Karnataka, be it a Manufactory, a Residential
complex, a Software complex, a Retail Mall, Hospital, Hotel, School, College
etc., is required to set up a Wastewater Treatment Plant – A sewage Treatment
Plant ( STP) in the case of domestic Wastewater or an Effluent Treatment Plant
( ETP) in the case of process or trade wastes.
That is the terminology used and don’t ask me why.
This
story pertains strictly to the first category of STPs - Shit and piss.
Every
promoter of such projects, not being an expert himself in designing or
executing an STP falls back upon a one stop solution for all his woes, and that
is his Architect. The Architect in most cases is only a middle
man (Almost all Architectural firms I have had the misfortune to deal with, if
only briefly, fall in this category) and brings on board consultants and
engineers of various other disciplines required to complete the project which
typically will include a :
-
Structural Designer
-
Plumbing consultant
-
Electrical Consultant
-
Landscape Consultant
-
HVAC Consultant
-
Govt. Liaison and commission agent ( much like the Architect himself)
The cost cutting starts at this point when the Architect does not want to employ a specialist Environmental Consultant and asks the Plumbing Consultant to double up and design the STP. Most plumbing consultants lack the professionalism required to say NO to an assignment they are not competent to handle. Greed, avarice and the comfort of Google goad them to take on a task that they are just not equipped to handle. They then end up “ Designing an STP with a little help from Google” - see my earlier Blog on this subject :
What
should be a only a two page concise design brief of an STP containing only pointed
and pertinent design basis, design criteria, engineering criteria becomes a big
fat tender document with a lot of extraneous crap and totally missing the
critical Design and engineering framework.
All manner of STPs are acceptable to this plumber including Septic
tanks, Anaerobic systems, UASB, Electrocoagulation Systems, RBC, SBR, MBBR,
MBR, EAAS, Enzyme based systems ( ?),
$%#@, and +*%& etc. Google
rather than domain knowledge and expertise is the Friend, Philosopher and Guide
for these Commission agents.
And
there is another breed of consultants with Zero technical knowledge who will
simply plump for an SBR system simply because “ 99% of STP’s in Bangalore are
designed as SBR’s.”
THE
TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ( TAC)
Sitting
in judgement over this load of shit and piss generated by the crapsters is a
bunch of equally wise men of the TAC constituted by the State Pollution Control
Board. All good men mind you. I am talking about a bunch more than three
years ago consisting of Academicians, retired foresters, fishermen,
Agriculturists and suchlike who in all their lives have seen STPs only in these
crappy reports.
In
order to show them the real world outside their ivory towers, I took them on a
tour of STP’s that they themselves had vetted and approved. The day tour took them to STPs based on SBR,
EADOx, MBBR, MBR - All of them defunct. In the MBR installation which the team
visited ( A self styled Seven Star hotel near Yeshwantpur) there was a pipeline leading out of the STP
transferring raw, untreated sewage directly outside the premises. So that the STP Operator will not have to
scratch his head trying to figure out the Best Operation Procedure ( BOP), the Pipeline was clearly marked in BOLD
LETTERS and in indelible paint : “ STP BYPASS”.
Having
shown to the TAC first hand their folly in approving all and sundry STP designs
of these plumbing consultants, I was hoping for some words of appreciation for
having opened their eyes to the pathetic state of the STPs they had approved. Not just me, thousands of honest citizens in
the City would thank the TAC to do their job with due diligence and right application
of mind.
Alas
! that was not to be. At the end of the tour, the leader of the TAC team
pompously declared that the STPs suffered and were dysfunctional due to “Poor Operation &
Maintenance”. As a natural corollary
therefore no blame should attach to them.
All the STP proposals they had scrutinised and approved were perfect in
design and Engineering.
I
had to bow my head before these wise men if only to hide the uncontrollable
fits of laughter I was breaking into.
Dr.
Ananth S Kodavasal June
18, 2016
P.S
: I write this piece on the day our Company Ecotech celebrates 30 years of
being in the Environmental Control Business. It only saddens me that after all
these years neither the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board nor the
plumbing consultants have been able to crack the STP Design conundrum. The lakes of Bangalore suffer on account of
these Charlatans. Honest citizens of
Bangalore are destined to suffer lifelong on account of defunct STPs in their
backyard. A perennial source of water
for secondary usages is being squandered mindlessly. These quacks must really
be put behind bars for professional misconduct and criminal malpractice.
