The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to increase its sewage treatment facility to improve the water quality and ecology by ensuring no untreated sewage water is released into the Mula-Mutha River, recognised as a “polluted” river by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
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The city, excluding the newly merged 34 villages, generates more than 744 million litre per day (MLD) sewage while there are 10 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) installed by the PMC with a capacity of 567 MLD. The gap in treatment is over 200 MLD. The civic body plans to bridge the gap by installing 11 sewage treatment plants of capacity 396 MLD at different locations.
A 20 MLD plant is being set up by the Pune Cantonment Board and the PMC would be building 10 MLD STP in Botanical Garden, 25 MLD in Baner, 28 MLD in Warje, 26 MLD in Vadgaon, 15 MLD in Tanajiwadi, 127 MLD in Naidu hospital area, 33 MLD in Dhanori, 75 MLD in Bhairoba Nala, 20 MLD in Mundhwa, 30 MLD in Kharadi and 7 MLD in Matsyabij Kendra. It is estimated that the increased capacity of sewage treatment would be able to cater to the estimated rise till 2027.
The project also includes laying new sewer lines of 113.6 km in addition to the existing 2,200 km across the city. However, it does not include the area of the newly merged 34 villages in civic limits.
“The significance of the project is to intercept, divert and treat the domestic sewage generated which is discharged in the river. It will help in improving the hygienic condition of the city and surrounding areas and aesthetics of the river by mitigating biological and bacterial pollution,” said a civic body official.
The effluent of proposed STPs will be utilised for irrigating nearly 21,000 hectares of land by pumping 515 MLD of treated water into the canal network of the irrigation department as it has given a discount on raw water usage to PMC, he said.
The revamping of the sewage network will be done as they are 90 years old in the central part of the city and a threat to groundwater pollution in case of leakages.
The Union government signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in January 2016 for providing a soft loan for the treatment of the Mula-Mutha River and completing the project by January 2022. However, the delay has escalated the project cost to Rs 1,511.34 crore.
“There has been a delay in the implementation of the project due to administrative failure. The citizens will have to bear the escalated cost of around Rs 550 crore of the project for no mistake of theirs,” said civic activist Vivek Velankar. He added there was no need to celebrate the implementation of the project which the ruling BJP is planning to launch in a function to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Moreover, the projection of sewage generation per day was done in 2016 and the situation has changed a lot now, he said adding the PMC is unlikely to fulfil the objective of not releasing untreated sewage water in the river as the actual sewage generation would be much more than estimated by the time the project is complete. “There is no guarantee that untreated sewage will not be released in the river considering the shortage of sewage treatment capacity in the next few years,” Velankar said.
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Ajay JadhavAjay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He w... read more