Hazard Ranking System for Orphan Sites and Unregulated Landfills

The world is rapidly urbanising, towns and cities are getting bigger day by day and as a result, there has been a sharp increase in the generation and complexity of the waste. At places where poverty, population growth and high urbanization rate combines with ineffective and under-funded solid waste management techniques, a huge quantity of the waste find its way to some orphan / illegal dump sites and unregulated landfills. Be it percolation of leachate affecting the ground water, down-wash of waste to surface water bodies, release of harmful chemicals into the atmosphere or fire hazard, illegal dumping and unregulated landfills are posing a great threat to almost every dimensions of life. Growing concerns about public health and degradation of qualities of air, surface or subsurface water from these sites have resulted in undertaking of appropriate control measures. However, because of financial constraints these control measures cannot be applied to all the polluting sites simultaneously, therefor a site hazard assessment system for identifying high hazard site and prioritizing them for required measures is essential.