Hindustan
Times: Malwa: Saturday, August 31, 2019.
Of
a total of 26 urban local bodies in the Malwa region which are part of the
‘clean Sutlej action plan’, 11 do not have a sewage treatment plant (STP), the
National Green Tribunal (NGT) was informed in a status report submitted to it.
A
panel constituted by the tribunal apprised it last week that there are only 10
such plants in Moga, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Muktsar districts and that seven
STPs are being constructed in the region. There is no STP in Faridkot district.
Officials
said untreated waste is being flown into the drains in the absence of adequate
number of STPs at the 11 identified sites.
Fazilka
deputy commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal, who was appointed nodal officer by
NGT, said the state government has been apprised of the issue.
The
ground report was prepared after Vikram Ahuja, a Fazilka-based farm rights
activist, had filed a petition in the NGT in July, alleging that the
groundwater in several villages along the India-Pakistan border in Fazilka is
getting contaminated.
Ahuja
had submitted official reports procured through the Right to Information (RTI)
Act to buttress his complaint that untreated sewage from various districts of
the state is wreaking havoc in Fazilka.
Recently,
farmers in several Fazilka villages claimed crop failure due to contaminated
sewage getting mixed in irrigation water.
Punjab
Pollution Control Board (PPCB) environmental engineer SS Dhaliwal said due
course is being taken to improve the ground situation via coordinated efforts
of various departments.
“An
STP at Jaitu is expected to be completed in September whereas the same will be
commissioned at Gidderbaha and Ferozepur by December. Two STPs each in
Guruharsahai (Ferozepur) and Kotkapura (Faridkot) are scheduled to be
operational by June next year,” he said.
In
January this year, the state government had planned a blueprint for action to
be taken to clean the river over the next two years. Faridkot, Moga, Muktsar,
Ferozepur and Fazilka districts are part of the ‘clean Satluj action plan’ and
STPs will be established at the identified spots, said the official.
Dhaliwal
said no penalty has been imposed on any municipality as the local bodies have
been given time by the state government to install STPs.
“The
zone between Rupnagar and Harike bridge on the Sutlej has been identified as
one of the four polluted river stretches in Punjab by the NGT. As per the plan,
only treated water will be used for irrigation purposes and no untreated sewage
will be put into the drains,” he added.
The
towns without STPs are Arniwala (Fazilka), Mamdot, Mallanwala and Mudki
(Ferozepur), Baghapurana, Nihal Singh Wala, Badhni Kalan, Kot Ise Khan,
Fatehgarh Panchtoor (Moga), Muktsar and Bariwala (Muktsar).
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