KTR says,no single STP built in last four years

Despite several assurances and announcements by  and the Metro Sewerage Board, not one sewage treatment plant (STP) has been built in the last four years.

The existing 25 STPs can treat a mere 750 million litres a day (MLD) of the 1,800 MLD sewage generated by the city every day. Over 1,000 MLD of untreated sewage is being let into the Musi, nala and water bodies.

This has resulted in untreated water is resulting in toxic foam forming in water bodies. Over 50 downstream villages are receiving highly contaminated untreated sewage.

The problem has been aggravated during the monsoon with foam developing on Parki cheruvu, Nallagandla cheruvu, RK Puram cheruvu, IDL cheruvu, and Chakali cheruvu. Besides, nala leading to the Musi are also frothing at at several locations. 

Sewerage Board officials are waiting to draw up a master plan after which they will build the STPs. 

The government is focusing on bringing drinking water from the Krishna Phases I, II and III and Godavari Phase I to the city without improving the sewerage system. A senior official said the government should have built the STPs to treat the additional sewage expected from the increased water supply.

A senior official said that new STPs will be constructed only after preparing the sewerage master plan which would take a year. Admitting that the Sewerage Board was responsible for water contamination, he said it had asked major commercial establishments and residential colonies to construct STPs in exchange for certain relaxations.

He said that the HMWS&SB had finalised tenders and hired a consultant to design the sewerage master plan at the cost of Rs 7 crore. "Shah Technical Consultants Pvt. Ltd would design the master plan and the number of STPs required in the city will be finalised only after finalising it,” he said.

Officials to tour Bangkok 

A team Metro Sewerage Board officials will tour Bangkok to study the operation of the vertical sewage treatment plants installed in all water bodies. Officials said the vertical STPs would be ideal for the space-starved city. 

A board official said the vertical STPs could minimise the contamination and stench associatd with the structures. The tour will be held after the monsoon.