CPCB directs Haryana to augment STPs to improve Yamuna’s water quality

SONEPAT: In a bid to curb the contamination of Yamuna, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has directed Haryana government to expand the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the industrial cities of Yamunanagar, Panipat and Sonepat districts. These districts have been identified as the primary contributors in the contamination of the river as industrial and domestic discharges from them are being dislodged in the lake without proper treatment.

S P Singh Parihar, CPCB chairman has written to the engineer in chief of the public health engineering department that augmenting the capacity of STPs and installing a proper sewage system at Yamunanagar and Sonepat is required, whereas the sewage system of Panipat city requires 100 per cent utilization of existing treatment facility.

CPCB made the following direction to the state after a report was submitted by the NGT appointed Yamuna Pollution Monitoring Committee. A joint team of the CPCB and the Central Council for Industrial Research (CSIR)- National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) had probed the river water quality at different locations in the three aforementioned districts. Along with these districts, the team also inspected the river water quality at Wazirabad in Delhi. It also visited the Ditch drain, Panipat drain, Drain No. 8 in Sonepat and Drain No. 2 in Panipat on December 24, 26 and 27, 2018. The public health engineering department has been instructed to submit a compliance report and time bound action plan within a month, retroactive from May 1.