City Beautiful third in sewage treatment

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, December 16

City Beautiful stands at third place among all UTs/states in the treatment of sewage. The city has a gap of only 3.25 MLD (million litre per day) in the sewage generation and utilisation of treated waste.

Lakshadweep and Sikkim have no gap with full utilisation of 2.83 MLD and 22.5 MLD of sewage, respectively.

Faidan factor

A senior official of the civic body said, “The gap is due to Faidan area that is not connected with our sewage treatment plants.”

This data was shared by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Lok Sabha. Chandigarh generates 220 MLD of sewage but only 216.75 MLD is utilised. Though the city has a capacity to treat 242.63 MLD of sewage.

A senior MC official said, “The gap is due to Faidan area that is not connected with our sewage treatment plants (STPs). The reason being there is agricultural and private land beyond lal dora. Even if intervention is done, there is no government land available.” Thus, the sewage of this area remains untreated.

According to information, a total of eight STPs are operational in the city, of which five meet the latest norms pertaining to biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). The remaining three are being upgraded. Of these, two are already in the trial/stabilisation stage, while one will soon get into that phase.

Pipelines are being laid for the distribution of tertiary-treated water. After the laying of pipelines and the completion of the trial run of the three STPs, more water (tertiary treated) will be available and supplied to extended areas to reduce fresh water consumption.

An official said no industrial unit was allowed to operate without having a proper effluent treatment plant. In case of any violation, the unit is sealed and electricity and water supply snapped.