New system to discharge human waste coming soon

BENGALURU: Soon, human waste from at least 2 lakh households that do not have underground drainage (UGD) systems, located in taluk panchayats and town muncipal corporations, will be diverted to a proper channel for scientific disposal. The state government is making attempts to prevent faecal waste mixing up with drains.

In Karnataka, as per 2011 census, out of 1,31,79,911 households, 13.6 per cent of them are using pit latrines/septic tanks which is close to 18 lakh households. Most of these households are located in taluks and villages. Some areas in urban areas too have these.With no proper underground drainage system at these places, human waste collected in septic tanks or pit latrines are sucked in a machine, collected in a vehicle, and let it in open drains, polluting the water and surroundings.

Recently, the Cabinet approved implementation of the new Faecal Sludge and Septage Management policy, and the state is expected to implement the new system in next three to four months.
On Janaury 8, Urban Development Department directed the Department of Muncipal Administration to implement the policy in a phased manner.

Dr R Vishal, director of DMA, told The New Indian Express that as they were doing it in a phased manner, in the beginning they would take up 90 taluk panchyats and 115 town municipal corporations that do not have UGD.

“When we calculated for Devanahalli taluk that has around 6,000 houses with a population of 30,000, we would have required `100 crore, and some other maintenance expenses for regular UGD system. When we implemented FSSM, we would need only `3 to `4 crore and `30 lakh for annual maintenance,” Vishal said.