Bhopal: Bhopal, the city of lakes, which has been declared country’s second cleanest city, has failed to keep its water bodies clean. “City’s water bodies including lakes are turning into a dumping ground for city sewage,” environmentalist Subhash C Pandey said.
According to reports, about 300 (million litres per day) MLD of sewage is discharged from the city out of which only 50 MLD gets treated in the sewage treatment plants (STP).
Pandey said STPs are inefficient to handle the hazardous waste hence should be replaced by ETP (effluent treatment plant). “The waste contains hazardous elements and chemicals, which can’t be treated in ordinary STP hence ETP were sought by environmentalists. I had filed a petition in this regard,” he said.
He further said most treatment plants are either not functional or they don’t operate at their full capacity. Citing another example, he said water of Shirin river near Koh-e-Fiza is in worst condition as the chemical oxygen demand (COD) when checked was found way above the normal level.