After Deonar, officials to curb level of methane at Mulund dumping ground to prevent fires

After implementing venting system in Deonar ground to bring down the level of methane gas, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned to replicate the same system for the dumping ground at Mulund to deal with frequent fires.

While the plan has already been executed to prevent incidents of fire in Deonar dumping ground, implementation of the same system for the ground at Mulund has recently been brought under consideration after it reported three cases of fire in the past month alone.

The Times of India quoted a solid waste management department official as saying, “At the Deonar dump we initially began by digging five gas wells and have now dug 10. These have been dug towards the Babanagar side. We plan to increase the number of vents in Deonar by 15. At Mulund too, we plan to use the same technique to trap methane.”

The ministry of environment, forest and climate change had, in their report on the Deonar fire, considered the generation of methane to be a potentional trigger to fire due to low explosive limit.

For the process of venting, well-like structures are dug in the mounds of garbage, according to this report in The Free Press Journal . Long pipers are fit in these mounds to release the methane directly into the atmosphere, which is five feet away from the garbage’s surface. Screens will be used to cover the vents to prevent objects, which may choke the system, from falling into them.

Methane gas on exposure in the atmosphere, converts to the 23 times less poisonous carbon dioxide. Hence, the MCGM considers this system as a safe mechanism.

The dumping ground in Mulund had reported three fire incidents in the past month; two of which consecutively broke out on Monday  and Tuesday this week and one on 20 March.

A string of fires at Deonar recently had also raised health concerns after smog and toxic gases spread around the area.

A six-month old boy had died in a locality near the dumping ground with the parents saying their child died of suffocation due to toxic gases emitted from the blaze.

However, the civic officials had refuted the charge.

With inputs from agencies