NGT raps Telangana, seeks action plan to save polluted Hussainsagar

HYDERABAD: A National Green Tribunal (NGT)-appointed joint action committee (JAC) has rapped the Telangana government for its failure in stopping pollution and encroachment of Hussainsagar. The JAC has said that even now nearly 50% untreated waste water was entering the water body.
Citing the report of the expert panel, NGT southern bench (Chennai) on August 27 said authorities did “nothing fruitful to protect Hussainsagar”. The NGT bench, headed by Justice K Ramakrishnan and Saibal Dasgupta, said that even when reduction in lake area due to encroachments was observed, no steps were taken to identify and remove encroachers and maintain water-storing capacity of the lake.

“Only temporary measures are being taken by authorities. There is no holistic integrated long-term plan for improving the situation taking into account possible generation of sewage water and also other sources of pollution. There is no lake protection committee, as required under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Act,” NGT said in its order.
“If this water body is not properly maintained and, as surplus water reaches river Musi, then that river will get polluted further. Telangana shall come up with a concrete action plan,” the NGT directed
The JAC report said its inspection revealed that about 40-50% of untreated waste water, comprising untreated sewage and industrial effluents from Kukatpally nala, was directly entering Hussainsagar, overflowing barriers constructed just before entry into the lake.
The JAC said: “Coloured stream has been observed in the Kukatpally nala, which may be contributed from the seepage/illegal discharge from industries.” It said that HMDA failed to submit technical documents related to the proposed Rs 152 crore project for improving water quality of the lake to the team.
Hussainsagar has two outlets— one near Viceroy Hotel and another at GHMC headquarters, Lower Tank Bund. During the committee`s visit, they noticed there was discharge from the outlet located at Viceroy Hotel into the surplus channel and water reached Golnaka, where 80 MLD of untreated water was diverted through intervention and diversion (I&D) structure to Amberpet STP and the remaining was let off into the Musi.
“River Musi is supposed to be a fresh water body, but as on date it looks like a big drain carrying sewage,” the committee said.
The committee said that Telangana should take the help of organisations such as NEERI for an in-depth study of Musi from its origin to its confluence point with river Krishna at Vadapalli to know whether any damage has occurred to the ecology due to continuous discharge of untreated industrial effluents.