<p>Report of Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee (JKPCC) in OA No 178 of 2024 (News item appearing in Greater Kashmir dated 15.01.2024 titled Increasing pollution badly affecting water bodies
Chennai Metrowater will soon impart training to technical staff and engineers of various government agencies involved in operation and maintenance of sewage treatment plants in a few other States.
Unsafe for consumption: Samples of contaminated water drawn from well at a house in Sai Nagar in Thoraipakkam. Dumping of garbage in the heart of the Pallikaranai Marshland (Perungudi Dumping Yard in official parlance) and letting out of untreated sewage from different sources into the Buckingham Canal have resulted in an irreversible damage to the quality of sub-surface water in residential localities of the fast developing Thoraipakkam and Perungudi. On a visit to nearly half-a-dozen localities in Thoraipakkam on Monday, presspersons found that water drawn from domestic and deep borewells in Thoraipakkam was orange in colour and accompanied by a pungent, foul smell. Environmentalists fear that the problem is fast heading towards an unprecedented catastrophe in this part of Chennai. Residents complained that quality of water drawn from wells in Sai Nagar, Selva Ganapathy Avenue and Saravanan Nagar, among other adjoining localities, was consistently deteriorating over the past few years. Of late, the residents were forced to depend on water drawn from wells for washing clothes and cleaning utensils. Office-bearers of civic groups in Thoraipakkam attributed the problem to the dumping of garbage and the letting out of raw sewage. Residential areas in Okkiyam Thoraipakkam village panchayat and Perungudi town panchayat were the worst affected, said Periasamy, President, Sai Nagar Residents Welfare Association. At least, a few thousand wells in the areas were contaminated, a few residents of Sai Nagar said. They said while the affluent sections could afford expensive water purifying equipment, the poor were left with little option but to use the contaminated water for household purposes. In the absence of a complete, safe and protected drinking water supply scheme, even economically weaker sections have to purchase bottled water. Owing to the dumping of garbage, leachates seeped into the sub-surface and entered recharge channels through which groundwater entered the domestic and deep borewells. Leachate was caused by the percolation of waste from garbage dumped on landfill sites, said N.Srinivasan, environmentalist. The problem was not restricted to Perungudi or Thoraipakkam, but to far-off places, including Muttukadu, through which the Buckingham Canal meandered . Mr. Srinivasan said a study revealed that fishermen were deprived of their normal catch of fish as a large number of fishes died owing to the sewage content in the Kovalam creek. Mr. Periasamy said the laying of the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road had only made it easier for rural and urban local bodies along Rajiv Gandhi Salai (formerly Old Mamallapuram Road) and East Coast Road to dump solid waste on the fringes of the marshland. Putting an end to dumping and burning of garbage and ensuring the discharge of only completely treated sewage might, to a large extent, help reverse the trend, he added.
Over two lakh residents of five villages in Outer Delhi have a stinking problem: living with a sewage treatment plant (STP) as their neighbour. The plant is part of the Capital's initiative to sanitise 189 villages with an "appropriate sewage disposal mechanism' by the end of 2009. The villagers moved the Delhi High Court recently, through a registered society called Gramin Uthan Avam Jankalyan, to halt the plant's construction. A Bench led by Justice T S Thakur, though, dismissed the petitioners' contention. The court observed that it was high time that sewage treatment in Delhi began on a "war-footing', and that there was no "real and compelling reason for interference in public interest'. The petitioners claim at 200 metres, the plant is too close for comfort, and would add to diseases and pollution in their area. "The STP will adversely affect the environment by breeding mosquitoes and spreading viral diseases and foul smell,' the petition says. The plant was meant for treating sewage of five villages
The general body meeting of Pune Municipal Corporation witnessed a row over the effluents and sewage water being released into the Mutha-Mula Rivers on a large-scale. However, Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi admitted that at present the PMC only has half the number of sewage treatment plants (STP) needed for the city. Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale even called for White Paper about the entire situation from the civic administration, to which the commissioner asked for a "minimum period' of one month. The debate started with the Shiv Sena leader Shyam Deshpande pointing out that the civic body is satisfied only with desilting the rivers and not actually keeping them clean in the real sense. "Desilting the rivers is fine, but what about the huge quantum of effluents being released into these rivers?' he asked. Corporator Anil Shirole said, "PMC received Rs 200 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, some of which are being spent on the rivers. But what is the use of such huge funds, if unclean and sewage water is let out into the rivers.' Pardeshi said, "As against the need of the city, only half the number of STPs are functioning in the city. The total amount of sewage water generated in the city is 700 MLD, out of which only half is being treated and then released.' Corporator Vikas Mathkari asked the civic administration to carry out a probe into functioning of the agencies, who are given a contract of handling the STPs. Meanwhile, on Wednesday Shiv Sena corporator Sachin Bhagat had allegedly carried a pistol into the general body-meeting hall. NCP corporator Mohansingh Rajpal had raised questions about this during the same meeting. Thursday's meeting also witnessed some initial discussion on the same. While Congress corporator Aba Bagul objected to carrying weapons into the meeting hall, NCP corporator sought a metal detector at the entrance of the GB hall.
Water being a good solvent, is prone to physico chemical and microbial contamination. Municipal sewage, both treated and untreated is often released into the receiving water bodies, which influence water quality.
The Delhi government has cleared a Rs 1,950-crore project to tap drains carrying sewage from colonies not connected to the city sewers. Interceptor sewers to be used for tapping is seen by the
Every society must understand how the excreta it produces is managed. It teaches us many things about water, about waste, about technologies to clean, economics and politics: of who is subsidised to defecate in our societies. But, most importantly, it teaches us humility. We know so little about our own world.
This paper describes the pollution status of fourteen major drains, namely Najafgarh drain, Magazine Road, Sweeper Colony, Khyber Pass, Metcalf House, Kudesia Bagh, Civil Mill, Sen Nursing Home, Drain No. 14, Barapulla, Maharani Bagh, Kalkaji, Okhla and Shahdara drain entering into the river Yamuna at Delhi, studied during the year 1999-2000.
In Delhi, nobody knows!
The planning mess must change
