Govt toughens norms for sewage treatment plants to fight pollution

Standards were diluted after the ministry received feedback that they were impractical and compliance would be costly

NEW DELHI: The Union environment ministry has tightened standards governing the quality of water sewage treatment plants (STPs) can discharge into water bodies and other sites.

For long, the focus has been on lack of sewage treatment capacity and not quality of treatment at STPs. Only three of India’s 28 states and UTs, for which data is available, can meet their demand for sewage treatment.

On October 13, the environment ministry tweaked standards for four parameters that determine water quality: pH value, which captures the level of acidity, Bio-Chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Fecal Coliform (FC). Fecal coliform bacteria like the dreaded strain of E. Coli is found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals.

The new standard is less than 1,000 (Most Probable Number per 100 millilitre, MPN/100ml) for STPs across India. The new rules will apply to all plants commissioned after June 2019, and all existing plants have to comply with them within five years.

But the norms are much weaker than those proposed by the ministry in 2015. The ministry diluted the standards after receiving feedback that the draft norms were impractical and compliance would be too costly, ministry sources told HT.

However, a Central Pollution Control Board official said it was a “good first step, and the rules were laid down keeping practical considerations in mind”. It is an expensive proposition to ensure older plants comply with the norms. The retrofitting of older plants itself will cost crores, the official added.

Bharat Lal Seth, an expert in water management, said it was better to have less stringent norms and 100% sewerage infrastructure coverage. “There is no point treating some waste water to a high degree and mixing it with untreated water,” he said.

For Ganga water, an HT analysis of 2016 data showed that at 60% of stations in UP for which data was available, the maximum values for fecal coliform levels exceeded norms. A major source of pollution in Ganga is sewage and a long running court case showed that neither was treatment capacity adequate nor was the sewerage network. Of the 4,800 million litres of sewage discharged in the Ganga, the currently installed STPs can treat less than a fourth. An overwhelming three quarters of sewage generated in the cities and towns along the Ganga discharge untreated sewage into the river.

The Modi government has approved adding 933 MLD capacity STPs, and enhance the functioning of existing plants to treat another 1,091 MLD. For other indicators, STPs in metro cities and state capitals, except those in Northeast, HP, Uttarakhand, J&K and UTs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep, will have to adhere to stricter standards.