STPs need to be functional, says Sewerage Board chairman

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 12  

The Punjab Sewerage Board Chairman has directed officials to own up responsibility for making the treatment plants at the Holy Kali Bein functional.

Visiting the Holy Bein on Saturday evening, Sewerage Board Chairman Vinod Sharma directed the officials present on the spot to ensure that all the STPs - responsible for treating sewage from villages and towns in the vicinity – are made functional. He asked the sewerage department officials not to put the blame on the other departments. 

He said it is unfortunate that the STPs, set up to treat the waste and prevent sewage from polluting the Bein, are not functioning and steps would soon be taken to ensure that all the STPs are made functional. 

Presently, STPs at Kapurthala, Sultanpur Lodhi, Bholath, Begowal and Dasuya are meant to treat the waste from the respective towns. However, due to a majority of the plants being totally or partially non-functional, the waste is being dumped directly into the Bein.      

Notably, sewerage department officials at Sultanpur Lodhi have so far primarily been saying that the polluting factors for the Bein do not fall in their jurisdiction but that of the local municipal councils and hence, they are the ones who should be held accountable. 

Work on sewage ponds in the villages – another project envisioned by the environmentalists – to route the sewage from rural patches into ponds, has also been devised. But since the wheat crop in the villages is still standing, it will be a couple of months before work on these ponds starts. 

Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal has stressed that effective and regular functioning of the STPs is the key to ensure that the Bein’s waters remain pollution free.

While Chief Environmental Engineer GS Majithia has revealed that 280 cusecs of water from the Mukerian hydel channel (which was non-functional due to construction work) has also been released into the Bein on Saturday, Seechewal said regular release of these waters is important to dilute the polluting agents in the holy rivulet.