Hyderabad: Water in the Krishna is polluted by municipalities discharging untreated sewage into the river or its tributaries. Earlier this year, the National Green Tribunal during the hearing of a suo motu case on pollution in the Krishna, pulled up 11 municipalities for discharge of sewage into the river without treating it.
Pollution Control Board officials from both states said their powers were limited to sending notices to municipalities. APPCB officials had sent a proposal to the state government last year to prosecute the municipal commissioner of Kurnool, one of the 11 municipalities pulled up by the NGT, but no action was taken.
During the hearing, the NGT asked the principal secretary, municipal administration and urban development, AP, to submit an action taken report on the proposal sent by APPCB.
While the case is still going on, the NGT pressure seems to be working. The Kurnool municipality is preparing a detailed project report to build sewage treatment plants to treat the 40 million litres per day of sewage the city generates every day before the water reaches the river.
An APPCB official said that Vijayawada was set to achieve a target of treating the entire sewage of 150 MLD that the city generates daily. No work has been taken up by Macherla, Jaggaiahpet and Tadepalli municipalities and Amaravati, Ibrahimpatnam, Bhavanipuram, Avanigadda and Nagayalanka gram panchayats which were also pulled up by NGT.
In Telangana, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is the major culprit for the poor water quality in the Krishna. The GHMC discharges 598 million litres a day of the 1,250 MLD sewage that the city generates daily into the Musi river, which meets the Krishna at Wadapally in Nalgonda district.
