Pune municipal commissioner, Mahesh Zagade, said on Tuesday that the sewage water treatment capacity in the city has increased substantially in the last decade.
He stressed the need to improve the capacity of existing sewage treatment plants (STP) and augment capacity to ensure 100% treatment of sewage water, before releasing it into rivers.
Corporators, cutting across party lines, insisted that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should ensure treatment of 100% sewage water.
The civic body’s general body (GB) meeting witnessed heated discussion on Tuesday on the proposal to approve an agreement of the PMC with water resources department of the state government. Various members expressed concern about release of untreated sewage water into rivers.
Zagade said the city had the capacity to treat 90 million litres per day (MLD) sewage water 10 years ago. But now the capacity has increased to more than 500 MLD.
He said rivers are unclean even after increasing the capacity of STPs. The capacity of existing plants is not utilised to its optimum level, especially during peak hours.
He said the civic body has got a project report of Rs638 crore to ensure 100% treatment of sewage water in the city. It is likely that the Centre would provide 70% funding for the project. The state government has assured to pursue the matter with the Centre.
He said there is an allocation of 11.5 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet water for the city. The city had lifted 15 TMC water from dams last year. The civic body has asked the state government to allocate 16 TMC water to the city. It is mandatory that the PMC should treat 6 TMC sewage water and release it into rivers.
