GUWAHATI, Sept 9 - Generation of garbage in Guwahati has been increasing at a consistent rate, says a new report prepared by the department of civil engineering of IIT Kharagpur, which studied various characters of garbage in the city.
According to the report, in 2011, the per capita waste generation was 0.350 kg per day, in 2012 it was 0.354 kg, in 2013 it was 0.357 kg, in 2014 it was 0.361 kg, in 2015 it was 0.364 kg, in 2016 it was 0.368 kg, and in 2017 it was 0.372 kg in a day.
The report � Integrated Waste Management System Report for Guwahati City � said that the per capita waste generation will become 0.375 kg per day in 2018, 0.379 kg in 2019, 0.383 kg in 2020, 0.387 kg in 2021, 0.390 kg in 2022, 0.394 kg in 2023, 0.398 kg in 2024, 0.402 kg in 2025, 0.406 kg in 2026, 0.410 kg in 2027, 0.415 kg in 2028, 0.419 in 2029, 0.423 kg in 2030 and 0.427 kg per day in 2031.
The IIT Kharagpur report said, �Chemical characterisation of representative sample was done to analyse moisture content, pH, water-holding capacity, hydraulic conductivity, volatile solid and calorific values. Waste characterisation has been done for August, November and March for all six divisions. Because of high rainfall in November in comparison to August and March, high moisture content and neutral pH was found in the month of November. Average hydraulic conductivity was found high for the month of August due to the presence of high percentage of inorganic waste in the waste sample.�
Similarly, average water-holding capacity and volatile solid was found high for March due to the presence of high percentage of organic waste in the sample. Average moisture content for the entire Guwahati city was found to be 49.54 percent, pH 5.83, hydraulic conductivity 0.082 cm per sec, water holding capacity 39.92 percent, volatile solids 41.31 percent and calorific value 1,833 kcal per kg,� the report added.
IIT Kharagpur in the report also analysed the potentiality of waste incineration plant, potentiality for gasification and pyrolysis, potentiality of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production and potentiality of bio-methanation.
�Municipal solid waste of Guwahati has around 40 to 45 per cent of combustible materials because of paper, plastic, textile, leather etc. These conditions strengthen the prospects of RDF. The only concern is high moisture content. There are cement and steel manufacturing units in the vicinity of Guwahati city. Many thermal power plants in Assam were closed due to corrosion of boilers due to high sulphur content in coal and difficulties in transportation of coal. These problems can be reduced by using RDF,� it said.