HIMANSHU SHEKHAR | हिमांशु शेखर

Himanshu Shekhar

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has released a report on water consumption and sewage disposal patterns. According to this report, the biggest cities in India are only treating 50 per cent of sewage they generate. This report shows that 35 cities of country are pumping 7,604 million liters of sewage per day into rivers and the sea. Tones of sewage are going to the sacred Ganga. The findings of this report should be a matter of serious concern to policy makers as well as society.

In fact, in last few years the lifestyle of a common Indian is changed immensely and this is responsible for increasing the pace of pollution. India has not developed the techniques of tackling this problem. That’s why a report like this is reflecting the poor performance of cities.

But it also reflects the carelessness of these cities. CPCB report is based on the study of 35 cities and only eight of them are able to treat more than half of sewage they generate. It means that 27 major cities of country are lacking basic sewage treatment infrastructure. Is not it a matter of shame? At least, it should be a matter of concern.

Government loves to say that they are developing those techniques, which will treat sewage and we are planning to invest a heavy amount on this project. This kind of statement is very common, when any one ask about the failure of them. But nothing happens on ground. Take a very recent example. In Varanasi, Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said that government will ensure the free flow of the Ganga but he never said a single word on the large amount of sewage, which is going into the Ganga. What does it mean? It means, he is playing the politics of pollution.

The government of Delhi is spending a very huge amount on Commonwealth Games. Sheela Dikshit government is busy in developing infrastructure for these games but it seems that her government is not serious to develop sewage treatment plant. According to this report, Delhi produces 3,800 liters of sewage every day. No other city of country produces this much sewage. 40% of this waste goes to Yamuna.

The Delhi Government has spent a lot of money on Yamuna action plan. In spite of that Yamuna has to deal with the sewage of national capital. In Delhi, 183 villages and 1,400 unauthorized colonies do not have sewage system. It reflects the failure of the system. Government is hiking tax rates, bus fares, metro fairs and electricity rates on the name of providing required facilities to the citizen of national capital. But the findings of this report are telling the story of government failure.

It’s high time to take some strong steps to address this problem because untreated sewage is a big threat to whole ecosystem.