We know our city of Shimla presently is passing through a phase of great challenge where the people are depressed with the ghastly murder of a young child ‘Yug’ to which we too here are completely distressed. However doing our duty as a learning visit to Bremen here is what we intend to present before the citizens of the city.
A delegation of Shimla municipal corporation comprising of Rajesh Kashyap, Dr DP Singh, Kusum Thakur,and tikender Singh Panwar supported by Andrews and Srinivas from CDD and local host from BORDA, Bremen held an interactive meeting with the planners of water and waste treatment of the city of Bremen. The first presentation was given by Thorsten and Raymond Maya from the department of Municipal Corporation, Waste Water Treatment Cell. Later the team visited the site of the waste water treatment. Dr Mayank Kumar and Ms Masha from the University of Bremen were the facilitators.
The team was briefed about the developments of the treatment of waste water for the past 100 years and how it has improved in the last decades. The city that was known for open defecation and throwing the faecal sludge in the river Weiser, the main river of the city. Just like carrying head load of waste in India the city too had the same practice in 1903 after when the basic infrastructure started developing. Though the 60% of the infrastructure was destroyed in the 2nd world war the city of Bremen was able to build it again. By 1966 they were able to have the first waste water energy generation plant too from the waste treatment. And one of the indicators for treatment of waste water and then discharging in the river was complemented with the return of seals from the ocean to the river and the city and this started happening in later though the same were dying in 1988. In fact the delegation was able to see one of the seals during the visit and lots of residents of Bremen had gathered to have a glimpse. In 2000 the European water framework directive came where it focussed on the environmental policies and overall consciousness. The city now is a net carbon neutral in waste management where it generates an equal amount of energy as consumed. The city now boasts of one of the finest infrastructure of waste water treatment in Europe which has been a long journey with massive support from the state of Bremen.
Lessons that were learnt include the massive support from the city state government to ensure that the basic infrastructure is laid in tandem to the demand. More than 100 million Euros were spent for the initial years. Another important lesson learnt happens to be the water fetched to the city happens to be from a long distance which is even 200 km far so that the water source does not get contaminated or spoiled. Currently they supply 127 lpcd pf water and pumps 100MLD of water to the city.Interestingly the initial years in Bremen too had the outbreak of cholera and such other water borne diseases which killed hundreds of people. I was reminded of a similar problem that we faced with the outbreak in e- hepatitis in Shimla where more than thousands of people were affected The third important lesson happens to be very regular monitoring and checking of the system , a standard operating procedure that even we have to follow . It is imperative to note that 230 km of sewer is monitored every year through TV for inspections and 700 km of sewer is cleaned every year.
Integrated approach of rain water and waste water management is a lesson for rain affected cities of India.
Huge capital cost borne by the state and dependence on Overseas funding was never felt.
Interestingly the city also has a unique management of waste water along with the storm water management where they allow the mixing of rain water with the sewerage . the city of Bremen has 220 days of rainfall and the excess rain is being utilised for dilution of the sewerage and enhances the treatment process.
The water tariff charged is a debatable point for adoption in India. Bremen charges tariff for waste water treatment as well as rain water management on floor area basis.
