The Pioneers - Indian Cities using Plastic Waste in Bituminous Roads

Chennai

Chennai is one of the first and leading cities in India to implement professor Vasudevan’s technology. It has, so far, used 1.6 Lakh kilos of plastic waste to build 1,035 kilometres of roads. Prominent areas in the city like the N.S.C Bose road, Halls road, Ethiraj Silai street and Sardar Patel street are laid with plastic components.

The Guardian wrote in 2016 : 'Jambulingam Street, Chennai, is a local legend. The tar road in the bustling Nungambakkam area has weathered a major flood, several monsoons, recurring heat waves and a steady stream of cars, trucks and auto rickshaws without showing the usual signs of wear and tear. Built in 2002, it has not developed the mosaic of cracks, potholes or craters that typically make their appearance after it rains. Holding the road together is an unremarkable material: a cheap, polymer glue made from shredded waste plastic.'

“Jambulingam Street is the best I have ever seen in the city so far. When many other roads in the city got damaged, this plastic road has remained in good condition for many years,” said N.Chidambaram, an autorickshaw driver in the locality.

Tamil Nadu as a whole has some 20,000 kms of plastic roads, mostly rural ones. A modified version of the road which adds road scrap to plastic-coated gravel was tested out in 2016 on a highway connecting Chennai with Villupuram. It was the first time plastic road technology was used for a national highway. It is expected to reduce construction costs by 50%.

It was announced in Jan 2019 that Madurai, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram airports to get roads made using plastic waste in a pilot project. Recycled waste will be mixed with bitumen to lay roads. Experts say the technology will ensure that the road made with the waste will not need any maintenance for 15 years. 

As per the plan, the material will be laid on roads within the airport premises first, and then perimeter roads along the compound walls will be laid. If successful, the technique will then be used for taxiways in the airport.

Officials said that since the Chennai airport generates the highest quantity of plastic waste in the region, this could be a good use case for the project.


In New Zealand, the Christchurch International Airport has paved its airport's fire station's premises using recycled plastic and bitumen.

Pune

Pune, which produces more than 200 tonnes of plastic waste each day, has used 3,343 kilos of plastic waste in building 1,430 kilometres of roads in the last two years. The Pune Municipal Corporation tied up with the Rudra Environmental Solution (India) Ltd and gave them a contract of building plastic roads across the city.

Vishakhapatnam

Taking a step further towards becoming a smart city, the municipal corporation had mooted this project in 2016 when they had laid 10 roads across all its zones. In 2017, till December, 16 more roads were completed. The length of various stretches ranged from a few metres to three kilometres. The aim is to construct more and more roads from plastic waste waste wherever re-laying of roads is required and plastic waste is available. 

Indore

Two-time winner of India’s cleanest city title, Indore recycles 100 per cent of its plastic waste and has used 5,000 kilos of waste plastic to build 45 kilometre stretch of roads in the last two years. 'The strength and finishing of roads when waste plastic is used is much better than tar. These roads have a better resistance to water stagnation. We noticed that areas in Indore where plastic was used to build roads saw less water clogging during monsoons as the roads didn’t develop potholes. In other words, the life span of the road is substantially increased', said the Swachh Bharat Mission Consultant, Indore Municipal Corporation.

Surat

Surat finally heaved a sigh of relief during monsoons last year. The idea of using plastic-bitumen mix was executed in January 2017. The diamond city has used 90,000 kilos of waste plastic to lay 15.91 kilometres of roads. The problem of potholes significantly reduced last year as no cracks developed in areas where roads were layered with waste plastic says Akshay Pandya, Executive Engineer, Road Development Department, Surat Municipal Corporation.

Lucknow

The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) is constructing a 10 km long road, from Gomti Nagar Police Station to the Indian Institute Of Management Lucknow, using plastic waste. Padmashri awardee and reputed Scientist Rajagopalan Vasudevan, also known as the ‘Plastic Man Of India’ will be leading the project.

According to the project’s Chief Engineer, Indushekhar Singh, mixing plastic waste increases roads’ durability by 40-50 per cent. “We use less than 50-micron plastic and around 8-10 per cent of plastic waste is being mixed in coal tar”, he added. 

“LDA will be following all the guidelines of the Central Road Research Institute in the construction of this road,” Singh said. Singh, told the media, “The process doesn’t require any complex machinery. It just needs to segregate plastic waste to a particular size, heat it and mix it with bitumen to bind it.” 

“Using plastic waste can help India, which has the world’s second largest road network, in reducing road accidents deaths. Potholes, a common feature of roads in India, are responsible for one-tenth of deaths that occurred in 2017 due to road accidents in the country”, professor Vasudevan explained to the media.

An astonishing 11 months a year of hot days for Kochi..

32 C feels like 40 C with the average annual humidity across india of 65-70 %. This link tells you how the heat days have increased in your city since the 1960s.

Kochi and Mumbai’s 6 months of heat a year in the 1960s (atleast 32 degrees C a day) have increased to 9 and 8 months respectively now. By the 2040s the hot days are set to increase to an astonishing 11 months a year for Kochi and 10 months a year for mumbai.

Chennai and Kolkatta’s 6-7 months of heat a year in the 1960s have increased to 8 months now and will cross 9 months a year in the 2040s.

Pune, Delhi and Bhiwadi’s 6 months of heat a year in the 1960s have increased to 7 months now and will cross 8 months a year in the 2040s.

Bangalore had 3 months of days of atleast 32 C or above in 1962, when I was born. Now those 3 months have increased by 18 days and will become 4.5 months in the 2040s.

Indian agriculture faces threats from irresponsible shrimp (& prawn) farming..

I am beginning to catch up with photos and videos sent me by friends in India on whatsapp while I was away.

Saw a terrible news item sent by a friend – in a large no. of villages, shrimp farms near chennai have turned barren the agriculture lands surrounding them. The untreated effluent from shrimp farms, full of toxic chemicals, is let out into lakes, rivulets and surrounding lands. It has ruined all groundwater sources and is destroying Kaliveli lake that hosts vast numbers of migratory birds and is a spawning ground for many fish varieties. Worse, the shrimp farmers, politically connected and rich, have broken the nearby dam which housed fresh water, which otherwise could have supplied fresh water to Chennai. Farmers are ruined and migrating as labourers.

Giant Tiger Prawn / CC-By-SA 3.0

I read more widely and found a large no. of news items that report on the devastation in Tamil Nadu. This is the story too in Andhra Pradesh (see here too), Orissa (also see here, here and here) and Gujarat (also see here and here). This has gone on for decades.

The shrimp farms are not registered or monitored by the authorities despite persistent protests by those surrounding them. Sometimes after largescale protests some shrimp farms are closed down, only to re-open again shortly. The shrimp farms are so toxic that they can use a particular piece of land only for a few years and then abandon it to move to new pieces of land. This degraded land cannot be turned back to farming for another 30 years as it is full of salinity and chemicals. The rich in our lawless land can monopolise environmental resources for great profits while more and more farmers and fish workers leave their generations old vocations to become labourers in cities.

The Indian governments, past and present have done nothing – even as other governments have recognized the dangers and have more effectively regulated shrimp farming. Most countries completely ban inland shrimp farming. Mexico runs the industry via highly regulated cooperatives. America has pioneered closed loop shrimp farming where the waste products are eaten by other acquatic animals. The value of protecting mangroves is being recognized even by shrimp farmers as the mangroves filter out toxic chemicals and restore water quality. But Indian governments are not bothered as they only seek to make more money to win the next election.

I can see news of only one large scale action - but we will have to see if it lasts.. in the Chilika Lake of Odisha. 

Is Desalination of Sea-water in Chennai really a Success Story ?

Two 100 MLD desalination plants, one in Minjur and the other in Nemmeli, now contribute close to one-third of Chennai’s total water supply. The first of these started operating in 2010. Owned 75% by infrastructure firm IVRCL, already by 2013 the plant had run into financial trouble. IVRCL is looking to exit the project. 

Rainy day in Chennai / Aadhitharajan / CC-BY-SA 4.0

Most of the average annual rainwater of 1,200-1,300 mm that Chennai receives—more than Bangalore’s 900 mm or Delhi’s 800 mm average—flows into the sea. Leaks and pilferage are the bane of Chennai’s water distribution network. Only 65% of the water from the city’s treatment plants reach consumers while in Germany this is as high as 95%.

Is it appropriate to compare a city like Chennai which receives almost three times as much rain in a year as that of Tel Aviv, Israel ? Professor S. Janakarajan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies says : “Seawater desalination was conceived as an option for providing potable water in rain-starved countries, like those in the Middle East."

"Where is the need to go in for such an environmentally damaging and costly exercise? It should ideally be the absolute last resort, which in this case is not”, the Professor asks.

Researchers have questioned the need for the state to back desalination projects when recycling of used water can be more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable too. 

The Nemmeli plant inaugurated in February was delayed for years by political bickering and execution hurdles. The plant was to be built at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore to pump out 300 mld of treated sea water. While the cost remained at Rs.1,000 crore, the capacity was whittled down to 100 mld. Two cyclones damaged the plant during construction. 

Back in 2013, a fact-finding team looked into allegations of environment and human rights violations arising out of the construction and operation of the Nemmeli plant. The report recorded villagers’ accusations of the desalination plant eroding the coastline and endangering their livelihoods in addition to turning the groundwater salty.

Dead Sea salt / Tiia Monto / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The brine released by desalination plants settles on the surface of the ocean and disconnects oxygen causing oxygen deficiency in the ocean floor area, which threatens marine life.

There are some species of fish which feed, breed and spend most part of their early life along the coast. If the hypersaline reject is let out close to the coast, the probability of these organisms being affected is rather prominent. In addition, high-pressure motors used to draw in water also brings in marine life forms of varying sizes despite nets placed to avoid relatively larger organisms. Fish, fry and crabs get crushed and killed in the process. Loss of income and marine resources cannot be discounted as fishermen in and around Nemmeli have observed it firsthand.

In addition to wrecking local livelihoods, the plant has depleted the area’s freshwater sources. During the plant’s construction phase, groundwater was pumped out continuously to sink deep foundations. This resulted in rapid depletion of the available underground sweet water, which eventually got replaced with intruding salt water from the sea. A plant designed to produce fresh water from the sea had, in reality, abetted the conversion of the existing fresh water in the region into unpalatable salty water. Water in handpumps in the area turned saline, forcing the neighbours of this drinking water factory to rely on expensive bottled water.

Carlsbad desalination plant, California
Bovlb / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Structures built into the sea for plant construction triggered rapid sea erosion resulting in the loss of an entire line of community buildings built by the Rotary Club after the 2004 tsunami. 

Inhabitants of the Nemmeli plant's neighbouring villages allege that water let out from the plant has reduced the beach to a thin strip, forcing the sea water to come close to the land where they live.  Villagers sent various petitions to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, their local MLA and to the Chennai Metro Water. The state government responded to complaints by jailing tens of fishermen. Fishermen were barred access to fishing grounds in the vicinity of the plant's intake pipeline.

The Environmental Assessment Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change noted in Nov 2017 that there was already significant erosion of the shoreline due to the 100 MLD plant commissioned at Nemmeli. 

Dead Grouper Fish / Jbellegaribay
CC-BY-SA 3.0

Even in the Middle East, which dominates the desalination market, there are no proper methods to tackle the brine and reject water. A 2011 study by Pilar Palmolar, Spain, states that extinction of fish larvae has been observed near brine discharges in Ashkelon, a coastal city in the southern district of Israel.

"Our land and livelihoods have been compromised so that people in the city don’t go without water. But we don’t get a drop of drinking water from the plant,” complains Santhosh, a fisherman, whose village is near the Nemmeli plant.

Janakarajan insists that our aim should be to conserve water received during the monsoon months instead of resorting to options like desalination after letting fresh water run wastefully into the sea. “Desalination is extremely unfriendly to the environment, and contributes to coastal ecological degradation, in addition to being ridiculously expensive.”

Chennai Metrowater now proposes to construct another 150 MLD plant at the same location. The project documents falsely describe the beach space as barren land, masking the multiple uses that fisherfolk put these livelihood commons to. Villagers are concerned about pollution, loss of livelihood spaces and erosion. They are worried that erosion will bring the sea closer and expose them to danger. 

Beach FisherMen / Nagafotos / CC-BY-SA 4.0

They know from past experience that MetroWater's assurances of "negligible" impact are baseless, and that the statutory conditions imposed as part of the environmental clearance by the Ministry of Environment will not be followed. They know that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the State Coastal Zone Management Authority will take no action in the event of violation. They know that they will be terrorised by the police if they voice their fears.

Currently, only 26 per cent of Chennai’s drinking water comes from the two desalination plants, with a total capacity of 200 MLD. To meet the city’s drinking water needs, conserving and protecting lakes and wetlands is a cheaper and environmentally better option than desalination. These wetlands will also save the city from urban floods. An analysis by CSE showed that post the year 2000, Chennai lost 50 per cent of its water bodies due to urbanisation. This resulted in seven major floods in the last 15 years.