Waseem Raja - Ph.D. Scholar in the Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Jammu
Akil Gupta - Project Officer, Water Quality Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu
Groundwater is a primary source of water for a huge chunk of population in India. Groundwater contamination has been quite evident recently and one of the main reasons behind it is leaching of pollutants from un-engineered landfill.
Heavy metals, other toxins and PFOAs leach from household discards, food waste, plastics, paints, batteries, e-waste which is result of no source segregation.
This study is based on application of modern approaches like ArcGIS and multicriteria decision making tools (MCDM) for suitable landfill site selection considering various governing criteria influencing an objective and comparatively evaluates each of the criteria to obtain the best results in order to minimize the chances of percolation of pollutants into the groundwater.
Microbial bioremediation of these pollutants by bio-augmenting acclimatized microorganisms for their onsite degradation and hence prevent their entry into groundwater table is also an objective of this study.
Microbes are cultured and acclimatized in the lab environment to degrade the pollutants of concern up-to a desired concentration and this culture is used to degrade the leachate samples from landfills to evaluate its efficiency and hence use these microorganisms for onsite bioaugmentation.
18 January 2023, 10:50 CET