NGT given updated plan to clean Kondli
NOIDA: The Noida authority has submitted an updated plan to the National Green Tribunal (NCI') to clean the Kondli drain — a major source of pollution to the Yamuna river.
The drain passes through multiple residential sectors in Noida, leaving behind a trail of stench and fumes. Officials said that the work must be done on priority.
The authority's nine-point action plan asserts that it would take at least three years to completely de-silt the Kondli drain by building six artificially constructed wetlands along it. This would clean it naturally and ensure that untreated sew-age is not discharged into it. Officials said the first wetland will be ready by June 2021.
We have inspected 69 resi-dential high-rises to check if their respective sewage treat-ment plants (STPs) are work-ing, of which, over 30 were served show-cause notices for either defunct or improper functioning STPs, they said.
Some 95 residential high-rises would be inspected to ensure that they do not leak untreated sewage into the drains. At least 104 public toi-lets and 56 community toilets have been constructed and strengthening of the existing sewage network in the city is underway.
"Kondli drain is our priority, and we have expedited the work to clean it. We have also decided to build seven wet-lands (artificial) across 17 kilo-metre along the drain, of which the first will be experimental and pilot— through which we will analyse its effectiveness by ensuring if the biochemical oxygen demand of the drain water is reduced. An MoU with the irrigation department has been signed for the same, and work for the first wetland will be done by June. If the biologi-cal oxygen demand (BOD) reduces, we will construct more," said RP Singh, DGM, water and sewer department (Noida authority).
The plan includes channelis-ing and connecting 30 drains with the main sewer lines —that illegally carry sewage into the Kondli drain — in three years.
"The proposal of strengthen-ing of the existing sewage net-work amounting to V9.77 cro-res have been submitted, and the same are to be executed on a priority basis. It might take around two years," the updated action plan, dated February 15, says.
The 40-year-old and 20-kilo-metre-long Kondli drain origi-nates from Delhi's Kondli lage.
It enters Noida (via Ghazia-bad) near Han Darshan police post in Sector II and submerges into the Yamuna near Chak Mangrola in Sector 168 after travelling 17 kilometre — Sector 11, Sector 12, Sector 22, Sector 50, Sector 92 and Sector 168 —in the Noida region.
Noida resident and environ-ment activist Abhisht Kusum Gupta had initiated the legal bathe to clean the Kondli drain in November 2018.
"It seems that the Noida authority is finally working, and this city will soon be rid of the 40-year-old menace which will benefit the residents and the environment," Gupta said.
According to the authority, the estimated sewage genera-tion in Noida is 216-million-li-tre per day, of which, only 152-million-litre is treated, while the remaining 64-million-litre of untreated effluents flow through the Kondli drain and into the Yamuna.