Only 23% households in Tamil Nadu have access to sewerage connection

Coimbatore: Only 23% of urban households in Tamil Nadu have access to sewerage connection, data during 2015-2016 submitted by the state government to the ministry of housing and urban affairs shows. Puducherry and Karnataka fare better with 55% and 48% coverage respectively.
Minister of state for housing & urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri had submitted the data in Rajya Sabha in reply to a question on the implementation of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut).

Meanwhile, state government officials blamed the lack of funds and limited coverage of the underground sewerage schemes (UGSS) as one of the major reasons for the situation. “Most of the schemes implemented in urban local bodies are area specific. None of the schemes have covered the cities completely. That could be one of the reasons for the limited coverage,” a senior official said, adding that UGSS cover only 33 towns and cities in Tamil Nadu that come under the Amrut scheme.

Also, various factors including availability of water sources and infrastructural requirements affect the implementing the UGSS scheme, the officials said. “Nearly Rs 12,000cr-worth projects will be implemented under Amrut and cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Tirunelveli, Vellore and Trichy will get sewage treatment plants and house service connections,” said an official.

Commissioner of municipal administration G Prakash said that by June, several projects will be completed and the coverage will increase. “Apart from Chennai, 47 lakh households come under various UGSS areas. Nearly 5.5 lakh of them have already received underground connection and three lakh more households will get them within a year. The percentage has gone up since 2015 and will improve further,” he said.

When asked about the delay in implementing the Amrut scheme, Prakash said that the department receives only Rs 6,000cr from the central and state governments. “We had to raise funds from the Asian Development Bank and local bodies for the work,” he said.

However, social activists pointed out sluggish implementation and lack of political will as the major reasons for the poor coverage. A case in point is the sewage treatment plant at Ukkadam in Coimbatore that can treat 70 million litres per day. Instead of the one lakh connections that the plant is supposed to have, only 32,000 households have been connected to it.

“To get a connection, one needs to pay bribe at every level. That is one of the primary reasons why people do not apply for the connections. Also, the charges are very high as the deposit amount as per the property tax is much more. There is also a delay in setting up sewage treatment plants, which have been in the pipeline since 2008. Proper utilisation of funds from the central government is also not happening,” said secretary of the Coimbatore Consumer Cause K Kathirmathiyon.