The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State government not to re-start pumping or releasing treated water from Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) in Bengaluru’s Koramangala-Challaghatta (KC) valley to minor irrigation tanks in Kolar and Chikkaballapura districts till August 1.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R. Devdas passed the interim order after the government counsel said that releasing / pumping of treated water has been stopped since July 13 when untreated water got mixed with treated water.
The bench expressed dissatisfaction over negligence of officials for not taking precautions to prevent the entry of untreated sewage.
The bench said that there is a need to stop pumping / releasing treated water to the tanks till the quality of water released from the STPs is assured and ascertained by the authorities concerned.
The interim order was passed during the hearing of a PIL petition, filed by R. Anjaneya Reddy of Chikkaballapura, complaining that the KC valley project was implemented without any scientific study and treated water ‘contains a large amount of industrial effluents with heavy metals’.
After hearing contentions of the State and the petitioner, the bench orally observed that ‘there is nothing wrong in the project and it serves several purposes, but it has to be implemented properly. Otherwise, it will be disastrous’.
Further hearing was adjourned till August 1.
Water test analysis
Earlier, the government counsel submitted an affidavit of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board's Chief Scientific Officer H. Lokeshwari. He had stated that water samples were collected at the discharge point and at the lake point, and tested in the Central Environmental Laboratory. An analysis revealed that the heavy metals were within permissible limits. "The quality of treated water is fit for irrigation," she had said in her affidavit.
However, counsel for the petitioner pointed out that the same report terms water quality index as ‘unsatisfactory’ while referring to various testing parameters.
The government counsel said that discharged water is ‘unsatisfactory’ for drinking but not for other purposes, like irrigation, as tanks are mainly filled up to increase groundwater level.
Technical study
On the other hand, the government, in its statement, has told the court that the project was approved in 2015 after a technical appraisal committee had carried out a study, as per some of the suggestions made by the High Court’s Lokadalat in 2013, for using treated water for non-potable and industrial purposes.
Contending that the petitioner had approached the court after the ₹1,342-crore project was implemented though he was aware of the project since its inception, the State said that quality of treated water released could be monitored online once the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board sets up the online monitoring system, which is under process. The government also clarified that KC valley STPs are treating only sewerage water and not industrial effluents. Hence, there is no possibility of discharge of contents of effluents into the tanks.