Hi-tech sewage plant to keep river Ganga clean

A modern sewage plant, to keep the river Ganga clean and capable of treating 27 million litres of polluted water, will soon start functioning, a project which began as part of the preparations for the Kumbh Mela 2010.

The Rs21-crore fully automatic plant will use the most advanced cyclic effluent treatment in the world to ensure that Ganga, whose water a recent study had said, was below the standards of the Central Pollution Control Board for bathing, flows clean.

"We are fully ready to treat the sewage. As and when the sewage is transferred here through the pipeline which is being laid by the government, we will start treating it," Harish Karkera, general manager (projects) UPL Environmental Engineers, the firm carrying out the project along with GCEPL, told PTI.

The plant, which is about 20 km outside the main Haridwar city, is next to the 18-million-litre sewage treatment plant that is already functioning.

A recent survey by Dehra Dun-based People's Science Institute said that the Ganga has been polluted due to continuous discharge of untreated waste and effluents from various drains directly into the river.

"The construction of the project has already been completed and commissioning of the project with raw water is presently in progress. Whatever other work is left, is only related to visual appeal," Karkera said.