Report

on

Assistance for designing a community based composting plant

in Baridhara of Dhaka City.

October 24, 2013

Report Prepared and Submitted By

Energy and Urban Services Programme

Practical Action Bangladesh

House no. 12/B, Road no. 04

Dhanmondii, Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Background: .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Methodology: ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Literature review ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Meetings/consultations with Swiss Contact and society .............................................................................. 5

Sites visit ....................................................................................................................................................... 6

Participatory consultations for finalization of design ................................................................................... 7

Details of selected land including location in GIS map ................................................................................. 7

Details of Physical Structure ......................................................................................................................... 8

Estimation of BoQ the required budget ........................................................................................................ 9

Details of EMP ............................................................................................................................................... 9

Limitations .................................................................................................................................................. 10

Recommendations and Way Forward ........................................................................................................ 10

Annexures: .................................................................................................................................................. 11

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Executive Summary

Practical Action, Bangladesh signed an agreement with Swisscontact to design of a small-scale

composting plant in Baridhara under their Value for Waste (Household Solid Waste Management)

Project. A four member’s team from Practical Action, Bangladesh were engaged to carry out the

assignment. The team reviewed project background literature and met staffs of SWISS Contact and

Baridhara Society and visited proposed two sites for composting plant. Both sites are located in lake side

which are declared as environmentally critical (penalty for actions against environmental conservation)

area by Department of Environment, Government of Bangladesh. The team recommended 2nd site (Lake

side, Baridhara in front of Indian Embassy) to consider the demonstration and did rapid environmental

impact assessment (EIA) and subsequently proposed environmental management plan (EMP). Practical

Action Bangladesh shared the learning from 2 functional and 2 abandoned composting schemes in 4

different secondary towns of Bangladesh to brief factors need to consider the design and

implementation of small scale composting plants. Based on the geographic location of the site, the

team drafted a design (3 dimensional) in AUTO CAD software and shared with Swisscontact and

Baridhara Society to get their feedback. The team addressed the feedback and completed the design

and estimation of the plant. The plant included composting chambers, space for drying and packaging

and facilities to control odor. The team also recommended Swisscontact to consider extensive capacity

building of workers, supervisors and Baridhara society leaders on different aspects of integrated

sustainable waste management (ISWM). Extensive awareness raising and establishment of a monitoring

system to assess the satisfaction of service users are also equally important.

Background:

The Value for Waste project (officially known as Household Solid Waste Management Project, HSWMP,

see project brief in Annex 2) of Swisscontact will start its implementation phase in Baridhara residential

area in November 2013.

Currently Baridhara Society, the association of the residents of Baridhara, collects mixed waste from

households and dumps it to a DNCC collection point. In May 2013 Value for Waste (VfW) has signed a

MoU with Baridhara Society to make the existing waste management system of the neighborhood more

efficient and environment-friendly.

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Upon request of Baridhara Society, VfW has developed a strategy for separate treatment of organic

waste in the area. One element of this strategy is to set up a small-scale demonstration composting

plant to treat a small portion of segregated purely organic waste produced by the residents. Located in

an area in which residents will pass frequently, this demonstration plant should be easy to run, aesthetic

and should not produce smells.

This plant should allow to:

1. Show residents of the area what can be done with compostable organic waste

2. Motivate residents to keep compostable organic waste segregated in their household

3. Set an example for efficient and clean utilization of segregated organic waste

4. Utilize the compost as a soil amender for plants in Baridhara (for parks and also for individual

residents)

Practical Action Bangladesh has long working experience in providing technical assistance to 7

municipalities/cities and 20 NGOs to implement integrated sustainable waste management projects. The

technical assistance included waste value chain analysis, facilitating city-NGO-CBO partnerships, design

and BoQ of composting plants, ToTs on operational, management of composting plants, branding,

packaging, standardization, certification and marketing of compost. In this context, Swisscontact signed

a contract with Practical Action, Bangladesh to develop a small-scale decentralized composting plant to

treat organic waste from households at Baridhara, Dhaka.

Methodology:

To carry out the assignment, Practical Action, Bangladesh adopted below methodologies:

Literature review

The team reviewed documents (baseline or waste situation analysis report) supplied by Swisscontact to

understand the quality and quantity of generated waste. VfW also supplied leaflet project brief and

waste composition study as background materials. The supplied materials provided an overview of the

VFW programme.

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Meetings/consultations with Swiss Contact and society

A kick off meeting was held at Swisscontact office on 26 September, 2013Mr. Mr. Syed Habibul Haque,

MRM Officer and Ms. Michelle Marbach, Project Assistant of Swisscontact, Mr. Atiq Mallik, Project

Coordinator and Mr. Tanvir, Site Supervisor from Baridhara Society and the team members (Mr. Uttam

Kumar Saha, Mr. Mahobul Islam) and Engr Taif Hossain from Practical Action, Bangladesh were present

in that meeting. In this Kick off meeting, Practical Action Bangladesh shared the learning from 2

functional and 2 abandoned composting schemes in 4 different secondary towns of Bangladesh.

Practical Action, Bangladesh also explored the expectations of Swisscontact and Baridhara Society. The

participants also visited one of the proposed sites on that same day for the demonstration of

composting plant. Before that an inception meeting was held on 19 September, 2013 at SWISS Contact

office to introduce project team members, discuss the assignment and agree deliverables and

milestones. The meeting also discussed the criteria need to consider for selection of any site for waste

to composting plant. The participants also visited one proposed site on October 9, 2013 in presence of

representative from Baridhara society and Swisscontact.

Kick off meeting

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Sites visit

The team from Practical Action, Bangladesh visited below mentioned project sites (Baridhara) and

arranged meeting with Swisscontact, Baridhara Society, Community leaders and neighboring people to

understand the potential for constructing such plant. Although the organizations (Swisscontact and

Baridhara Society) have strong presence in the project area, the initial proposed site located near

mosque, next to Road 11 had some limitation due very close to a Mosque. The team mentioned about

their concern regarding the Mosque and the future challenge to manage a compost plant beside a

mosque. The team requested Swisscontact and Baridhara Society to propose another site. The team

from Practical Action visited the alternative site (01 no, near Indian High Commission Office) proposed

by Baridhara Society, the team decided to proceed the design for small scale demonstration.

Place Visited Key Informants Information obtained

Lake side, Baridhara

in front of Road No.

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Mr. Atiq Mallik, Project Coordinator

and Mr. Tanvir, Site Supervisor

from Baridhara Society and

Community People

Near to Mosque and road side.

Lake side, Baridhara

in front of Indian

Embassy

Representative from Baridhara

society and Swisscontact

40’x40’ (around) and surrounded by

trees, seems ok for set up a mini

composting plant.

Visiting the mentioned project site

Participatory consultations for finalization of design

A consultation meeting was held on 09 October, 2013 at Swisscontact office in presence of

representative from Baridhara Society and Project personnel of VfW of Swisscontact. The location of

proposed site was changed by representative from Baridhara Society and a new site was proposed. The

draft design of the proposed composting plant was shared at the meeting and collected comments and

feedback from Swisscontact and Baridhara Society. The feedback from this meeting has incorporated in

the revised design.

Details of selected land including location in GIS map

Proposed site for Composting plant in Google Map

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Details of Physical Structure

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3D view of proposed compost plant

Proposed Layout for composting yard

Please see “annex. II” for detailed design

Estimation of BoQ the required budget

The team with the assistance of team members will review available literature, designs and hold

discussion with relevant stakeholders/experts and share views for collecting necessary information.

After that the team designed the proposed composting plant and prepared BoQ for this work. See

annex. III

Details of EMP

See Annex. IV

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Limitations

To carry out the assignment, Practical Action, Bangladesh faced below few limitations

The design of composting plant depends on many factors (i.e. quality and quantity of wastes,

equipment’s will be used for primary collection, secondary transfer arrangement of wastes to

composting plant etc) which need to be considered during the implementation of VFW

programme.

Duration of the assignment (only one month) was very tight and a number of working days were

lost for national holidays for Eid and Puja and for this the design was not as much as

participatory as expected.

Recommendations and Way Forward

The design of composting plant is the entry point for piloting VfW programme in field. Learning from

design and implementation of several waste management schemes in a number of municipalities/cities

Practical Action, Bangladesh is pleased to recommend below way forward to achieve the intended

sustainable changes environment and public health of Baridhara society

Organize training and on the job coaching, mentoring of workers and other staffs involve in

composting including separation of wastes, production system, quality control, packaging ,

storage, record keeping.

Organize training and orientation for waste collectors and supervisors on personal health,

hygiene and safety

Establish monitoring system to assess the satisfaction of waste collection service receivers and

compost users

Capacity building training for senior staffs and executive members of society on integrated

sustainable waste management.

Organise exposure visit in better performing municipalities (i.e Gaibandha, Faridpur) where

municipalities, NGOs, CBOs are working in a coordinated approach to tackle waste problems

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Annexures:

Annex I: List of team members facilitated the task

Team: The study and design was carried out by four members team comprised of Solid Waste

Management Specialist, Environmental Engineering Specialist, Design Engineer and Infrastructure

Engineer.

Name Education Experience Role in Study

Uttam Kumar

Saha

M.Sc in Civil and

Environmental

Engineering from

BUET

13 years mainly on designing,

implementing and

evaluations of pilot SWM

schemes in Sylhet City and

Gazipur Corporation,

Faridpur, Gaibandha and

Mymensingh municipalities

Environmental Engineering

Specialist:

Literature Review, Field

visit and facilitate

stakeholder consultations,

Environmental Assessment

Presentation to Swiss

contact

Md. Mahobul

Islam

B.Sc in Civil

Engineering from

RUET

10 years mainly on designing

and estimating BoQs of

community based

decentralised waste

treatment options in

Narayanganj City

Corporation, Faridpur,

Jessore, Gaibandha and

Mymensingh municipalities,

production of training

manuals, facilitate ToTs for

LA and NGO staffs

Solid Waste Management

Specialist:

CAD design, BoQ for waste

treatment facility, Field

survey

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L. M. Sirajus

Salekin

B.Sc in Civil &

Environmental

Engineering from

Shahjalal University

of Science and

Technology

5 years mainly on CAD

design, BoQ

CAD design specialist

Taif Hossain

Rocky

B.Sc Engineering

from BUET

3 years mainly on design,

BoQ and estimation of

infrastructure

Design, BoQ and estimation

of infrastructure

Annex II: CAD design of plant (Plan, Section, Elevation and Layout of the yard)

Annex III: Bills of Quantity (BoQ) with Estimation

Annex IV: Environmental Management Plan (EMP)