947 MLD of untreated waste water is released by 160 urban civic centres in state which do not have treatment plants, says UMC report.
Around 947 million litres of untreated sewer water released by 160 urban local bodies (ULBs) in Gujarat is drained untreated into freshwater bodies daily. This is so because these civic bodies do not have waste water treatment plants.
This has been revealed by data compiled for a report by Urban Management Centre (UMC), CEPT University and All Indian Institute of Local Self-Government as part of their Performance Assessment System (PAS), 2008-13.
Of the total urban local bodies in the state surveyed, only 6 have water treatment facilities while 160 have none. The UMC report says that of the 6 ULBs which have water treatment plants, only four - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot - can treat 80% of the waste water produced by them. The rest 20% is drained untreated by these civic bodies as well.
Incidentally, the data on amount of waste water drained untreated into freshwater bodies (river, lakes and creeks) does not include the sewer water released untreated daily by the four municipal corporations with water treatment plants mentioned above.
Gujarat might boast of being a pioneer in environment-friendly initiatives but the data mentioned above reveals how its river, lakes and creeks are increasingly getting polluted by civic bodies which do not have waste water treatment plants.
Talking about possible solutions to the problem, UMC director Manvita Baradi and Meghna Mathur (also of UMC) said that the 160 urban civic bodies which do not have waste water treatment facilities should think of having decentralized sewerage treatment plants.
“There is also the need to be a little innovative when it comes to waste water treatment. Small towns should start decentralized sewer water treatment plants,” said Baradi.
Incidentally, in Gujarat, reuse and re-cycling of waste water is not done by any civic body except Surat Municipal Corporation which has initiated the practice.
Currently, 1% of the total waste water collected through the sewerage network of the city is recycled or reused, the UMC report says. State minister for urban development and housing, Nitin Patel and principal secretary IP Gautam, both said that they needed to study the report before making a statement. Gautam, however, said that the figures might be incorrect and hoped that situation is not that bad.
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