Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, it appears, has decided to pollute the city and contribute to its extinction. The civic body has decided to divert the sewerage flowing into the lakes either to a nearby water body or Musi River as there is no policy decision taken by the State government for the construction of sewerage treatment plants (STPs).
Corporation officials claimed that the state government had asked for the facelift of about 20 lakes at an estimated cost of Rs 279.78 crore.
Even though full tank levels (FTL) were marked, the state government failed to give instructions about the construction of STPs, whether to construct them in the buffer zone or FTL limits. The officials claimed that without clearing this issue, neither the corporation would issue permission nor could the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board construct the STPs, since most of the area constituting the buffer of lakes was occupied by buildings and there was no space to construct STPs. They said that in the wake of this, the corporation had finally decided to pass the contamination from one water body to another by diverting.
According to highly placed sources, the civic body had finalised tenders for 12 lakes out 20 shortlisted during phase I. Apart from bund strengthening, the corporation has decided to construct STPs, walking tracks and children parks.
However, the government has not given any specific guidelines where to construct STPs — whether in buffer zones which varied from 9 metres to 30 metres based on the size of the lake. As per norms it should construct inside FTL of the water bodies.
None of the shortlisted lakes have buffer zones due to rampant encroachment.
The shortlisted lakes require STPs which can treat 5 million litres a day to 100 million litres day. In order to construct STPs, the minimum land required was about two acres and a maximum of 25 acres based on the STP.
Sources said that the civic body could not go ahead with construction of STPs, rather it would divert the sewerage to contaminate the other bodies and eventually it would reach Musi river.
B.V. Subba Rao, an environmental specialist said it was the Union Ministry of Environment to be blamed for not framing such guidelines especially after extinction of thousands of lakes in cities like Bengaluru. “The States were only executive bodies which would implement the guidelines issued by the Centre as far as issues pertaining to environment were concerned. However, the state had the responsibility to minimise the contamination by chalking out comprehensive plans and not in a hurry,” he said.
Mr Rao said neither the Centre not the State had a scientific approach for saving water bodies in urban areas. He said with the advancement of technology, it should find engineering cum biological techniques to minimise the contamination without the construction on STPs due to unavailability of space.
“The State government cannot alone spend Rs 50 crore annually toward electricity charges for installing STPs in the shortlisted lakes, rather it should look for alternative solutions. By diverting the contaminated water, the corporation was only shifting the problems to another place but not providing any amicable solution.”
Explaining about the hazards of diversion of contaminated water, Mr Rao said the downstream villages had stopped producing paddy as it was growing in the 100 kilometre Musi river basin up to Nalgonda district, specifically in Edulabad zone.
“The shortlisted lakes by the corporation are at different locations in the city and therefore how could constructing STPs be a solution when the city has a chain of lakes?” Mr Rao asked.
He suggested that young engineers be deployed to study the problems pertaining to urban areas and then come out with a solution.
