Garo Hills is suffering from the onslaught of torrential rains with lives lost and homes uprooted and livestock all dead in the flood waters. What can be a worse catastrophe than this! With climate change becoming a stark reality and taking a toll on human lives and destroying public amenities such as bridges, roads and buildings, it is time to revisit the entire public infrastructure planning and construction. Roads in Meghalaya are built of soil, aggregate and bitumen. One is unsure if asphalt is used but looking at the poor quality of our roads one sees only an attempt at cost cutting, not at creating structures that will last for at least a decade without the need for repairs. Asphalt is produced in a plant that heats, dries, and mixes aggregate, bitumen, and sand into a composite mix. Depending on the type of project, the material is subsequently applied on-site with a paving machine at a specified or required thickness. Some parts of the city where this process is applied have shown better road quality. When asphalt is employed in road construction, it takes the form of a composite material known as asphalt concrete. This road construction material is made up of 70% asphalt and 30% aggregate. Asphalt is 100% recyclable, making it one of the most preferred materials for road construction according to engineers.
However, in rainy areas, professionals are of the opinion that plastic waste (carry bags, cups, thermocol, foams and flexible films) when shredded into small pieces and added to the granite stone that is heated to around 1700c makes good material for roads. The shredded plastic waste is melted and coated over a stone in just 30 seconds. Then the bitumen is added and mixed. Alternatively the shredded plastics are added along with the aggregate or a special mechanical device which is developed to spray the plastics inside the chamber to coat the plastics effectively to have a uniform coating. Considering that Meghalaya is battling a crisis of not being able to dispose off the tonnes of plastics it is time to reimagine road construction that can use waste materials and also last longer.
Large parts of Meghalaya are hilly terrain and building on slopes is fraught especially at a time when climate change has wreaked havoc and flood waters are carrying away entire villages. Human tragedies rise manifold hence the state has to ensure that reckless construction on loose soil is not allowed. The problem is that there is no robust mechanism for giving out building permissions, taking into account safety and security measures. It’s a free for all and yet when tragedy strikes it is the state that has to bear the brunt and dole out money to suffering families when some basic safety measures at the building stage could have prevented the tragedy. Clearly climate change affects not just the climate but the entire construction eco-system including doing away with wooden bridges and using concrete to replace them. Many such bridges dot the landscape in this state and warning signs that the bridges are weak are placed there but vehicles continue to ply until catastrophe strikes. The state has to take a collective call to replace all wooden bridges connecting villages
