New Delhi, Aug 5 The National Green Tribunal has directed the Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) to impose environmental compensation on urban local bodies for discharging untreated sewage into the river Ganga through stormwater drains.
The green body is hearing a matter where it had taken suo motu (on its own) cognisance of a newspaper report titled 'Ganga water unsafe even for bathing, says Bihar govt report on river pollution'.
In an order dated August 3, a bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Afroz Ahmad said, "The tribunal is examining the issue of high pollution level and presence of the faecal coliform in various rivers including the river Ganga, Son, Kosi, Bagmati in 27 districts across Bihar."
The bench said that the news report based on which this original application (OA) was registered "discloses that all major rivers passing through Bihar are unsafe even for bathing".
It noted that the state's environment department had filed an affidavit, according to which there are currently 43 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in Bihar, of which 15 are complete and operational, five are under trial, nine are ongoing projects, four are at the tender stage and 10 are at the Detailed Project Report (DPR) stage.
The tribunal directed the department to further provide the details of capacity utilisation of these STPs and progress regarding the under-construction plants. It asked the BSPCB to disclose if the treated water from these STPs is meeting the prescribed norms.
It noted that according to the affidavit, there were 15 untapped drains in Patna discharging around 349 million litres per day (MLD) in river Ganga, seven drains discharging 50 MLD in Buxar, five drains each discharging 47 MLD in Ara (Bhojpur) and 25 MLD in Jamalpur (Munger) and two drains discharging 23 MLD in Barauni.
Besides, the tribunal noted that there were three untapped drains in Dumraon (Buxar) and six such drains in Barahiya (Lakhisarai).
It said, "As per the above disclosure, a huge quantity of untreated sewage is being discharged from the drains which are stated to be untapped. Many of these drains must be stormwater drains which have been tapped, but a stormwater drain cannot be tapped as a permanent measure."
The NGT said that the department is required to disclose the action which has been taken for creating the sewage network to prevent the discharge of untreated sewage in these stormwater drains and the timeline for completing the said network along with the authority responsible and details of availability of funds.
"Since the untreated sewage is being discharged through the stormwater drains in river Ganga, BSPCB is required to take action of imposition of environmental compensation upon the urban local bodies which are responsible for discharge of untreated sewage through the stormwater drains in river Ganga," the tribunal said.
The matter has been posted on October 16 for further proceedings.
