A three-day training programme on Hazardous Waste Management was conducted by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), Tamil Nadu in Chennai. The event took place in the Cleopatra Banquet Hall, at the Checkers Hotel in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Thirty-nine senior, mid-level and newly recruited officials from the TNPCB attended the training programme.
Dr. Selvan, (Director, Environmental Training Institute, TNPCB) inaugurated the programme with his welcome address. It was followed by a brief speech by Mr. N. Sundaragopal (Additional Chief, Environmental Engineering division). During his introductory speech, Mr. Selvan highlighted why this training is necessary for the officials, and stated the importance of capacity building in order to development better monitoring and compliance assurance practices by the regulators. He thanked CSE for conducting this training programme, which was first of its kind for the officials. He also expressed his interest to continue to work with CSE on capacity building and relevant research in the future.
The programme facilitated experience sharing on hazardous waste management, its rules and regulations, and proper disposal. The programme covered topics like identification and classification of hazardous waste, site selection criteria for treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF) for hazardous waste, design aspects for secured landfill and incinerator, leachate management, sampling, analysis and monitoring of hazardous waste, and procedure for granting authorization and conducting inspection. Apart from this, there were class exercises to give hands on experience to the participants on TSDF site selection. The key resource faculty from CSE for this programme was Dr D.D. Basu (Advisor, CSE). The external speakers that were invited for this programme were Mr. N.K. Verma (Ex- Additional Director, Central Pollution Control Board), and Mr. A. Manoharan (Former Sr. Scientist & Zonal Officer, CPCB).
The programme received a positive feedback from all the participants. Most of the participants mentioned that the knowledge they acquired from the training will be useful to them in their fieldwork, and will help them monitor and mitigate hazardous waste impacts on environment as well as on its proper management.
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