ALTERNATIVES OF WASTEWATER COLLECTION: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Dal lake has undergone environmental and ecological degradation due to encroachments, discharge of untreated domestic wastewater, uncontrolled dumping of solid waste, agricultural activity in lake, large scale of deforestation in the catchment area, uncontrolled growth of weeds, siltation etc. To prevent from further deterioration, an integrated sewerage system in the peripheral area was formulated. Two alternatives based on centralized system were proposed to MoEF by some agency (ies). Due consideration to environmental gains/losses was not given. So another alternative with decentralized approach was worked out considering environmental factors. EIA has been used as a tool to evaluate the alternatives. There are several EIA methodologies to deal with decision-making problems. Ranking, scaling or rating checklist method find great importance while dealing with decision making by EIA. After the preparation of checklist each decision factor is pairwise compared with other decision factors. Alternatives are compared pairwise relative to decision factors. On this basis the product matrices are generated, which yield the ranking of alternatives. Using some statistical analysis, significance of difference between the alternatives is tested. So on the basis of the present study, it can be concluded that EIA techniques particularly unranked pairwise comparison with checklist methodology can be used in such evaluation of sewerage projects.