As part of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funded CapaCITIES Project, Mr. Stephan Textor from Textor Engineering Ltd. visited the city of Coimbatore from 30th of April to 5th of May, 2018. ICLEI South Asia team facilitated the expert visit to the city. The primary objectives of the visit were to:

• Conduct a status review of the project on movement of openly dumped waste at the landfill site in Coimbatore
• Conduct a measurement of the landfill gas emissions from Vellalore site
• Design a master plan for the Vellalore waste treatment and disposal site in Coimbatore.

During the last visit of the expert, a plan was submitted to the city for moving the openly dumped waste at the Vellalore site to a designated site close to the old landfill site and for the scientific closure of the full site. This plan has been submitted by the city to the National Green Tribunal as the city’s plan to deal with the openly dumped waste. However, till now no action has been initiated in this matter due to financial constraints and open dumping of waste is being continued. Mr. Textor therefore provided a set of guidelines for the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) to implement right away so that the problem of open dumping can be dealt with effectively. It has been suggested to CCMC to simply build an access road with C&D waste that is available at the site, and dump the incoming waste on a compacted base around the old dumpsite at Vellalore. This would have a three pronged benefit of saving money and efforts in in dumping waste in one place and then reloading it to dump elsewhere, already starting the work that can be supported when the financial support comes and avoiding fresh waste in newer areas, that will require removal and redumping later, and thereby avoiding people’s protests.

Landfill gas emissions were measured in 32 points spread over the old dumpsite, fresh waste dumpsite and the sanitary landfill site in Vellalore. It was observed that the gas was higher if the waste was compacted properly (like in the old dumpsite or the sanitary landfill) but quite poor in the fresh and open dumped waste, where most of the waste is aerobically composted, so that there is little methane.

The technical expert along with ICLEI South Asia staff and municipal staff also developed a plan for the design of the entire Vellalore treatment and disposal site. The overall plan shows how the site would look like by the end of 2035. A formal report for the same would be submitted in 3-5 weeks by the expert to the CCMC for approval.