Disaster in the pipeline ?

By K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD, NOV. 13. The State Government's decision to go ahead with the laying of a 18-km-pipeline to carry industrial effluents from Patancheru industrial area to Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) at Amberpet, has raised the hackles of city-based environmentalists who say that it amounts to "merely shifting pollution problem from one area to another."

Describing the project as "disaster in the pipeline," they fear that the move will prove calamitous for the villagers downstream of the Musi in Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts as the Amberpet STP, having grossly inadequate capacity and lacking facility for treating industrial waste, may merely let out the effluents into the river.

The decision on the pipeline taken by a high-level committee, appointed to oversee implementation of the Supreme Court-approved joint Action Plan relating to pollution problem in Patancheru, has taken the environmentalists by surprise. They question the decision as the stakeholders of villages downstream of the Musi to be immediately affected have been left out without being consulted. They warn that it would be the turn of these hapless villagers, already reeling under pollution, to face a fresh wave yet again with the creation of another Patancheru there.

By projecting the pipeline as the only alternative, an erroneous impression is being created that the effective implementation of various court directives to check pollution in Patancheru industrial belt mean merely diverting the effluents into the Musi through municipal sewerage systems, they have said, and demanded that the pipeline project be reviewed immediately.

The pipeline project to be taken up by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB), with funds provided by industrialists of Patancheru area, was put on hold, for several months now. This was because the former topmost official of the HMWSSB had been strongly opposing it, saying the STP capacity at Amberpet was simply incapable and inadequate. The A P Pollution Control Board and the Central Pollution Control Board, both of which have originally made the suggestion in the Action Plan, had some reservations later, perhaps realising the folly.

But with the Supreme Court recently asking the State Government about implementation of the Action Plan, the pipeline project was pushed through, notwithstanding the consequences. The idea now seems to be to divert the effluents in a pipeline and join it to the `K and S main' at Kukatpally, from where there is another pipeline that goes upto Amberpet STP.

The project is being thought of at a time when the hydraulic load reduction of waste water by 20 per cent stipulated in the Action Plan has not been achieved by many of the industrial units. On the contrary, the generation of waste water has gone up, as the dilution process of industrial effluents with sewage is being resorted to indiscriminately to conform to concentration standards, much against the court directives.

The Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) at Jeedimetla has been discharging "treated effluents" into municipal sewers, which are ultimately finding their way into the Musi. Set up for treating 15,000 cubic metres of industrial effluents daily, the CETP at present is functioning much below its capacity, that too by mixing domestic sewage for dilution. Even after this dilution, the effluents being discharged by CETP have `TDS' levels far in excess of 15,000 stipulated in the Action Plan. The situation is more or less the same in the other CETPs at Patancheru and Bollarum industrial areas. One can imagine the additional load from the new pipeline.

The inadequacy of the Amberpet STP apart, the State of Environment for Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration published by Environmental Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI), has mentioned that only less than 30 per cent of the existing sewage generated in the city reached the Amberpet STP. It meant a large quantity of the untreated or under- treated sewage was flowing into the river. And even at a distance of 12 km downstream of this STP, the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels are very high, indicating the extent of pollution.

In about 20 villages downstream of the Musi, the sources of surface and ground water is totally contaminated by intrusion of the untreated effluents, depriving villagers of even safe drinking water.

Edulabad with a population of about 15,000 is one such village affected by toxic discharges into the river. A large tank, Lakshminarayana Cheruvu, is polluted rendering the 1,500 to 1,800 acres of ayacut useless.

The alternatives, the environmentalists suggest, include segregation and treatment of waste water at the level of the industry, installation of liquid incinerators for achieving zero discharge of high organic wastes and changeover to cleaner waste minimisation technologies and processes cutting down water consumption.

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Section  : Southern States
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