AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday issued a slew of directions to authorities to ensure reduction in pollution levels of the Sabarmati through proper treatment of waste water. It directed the Ahmedabad municipal commissioner to implement these measures.
The high court also asked the chief secretary to extend all cooperation and remain in touch with the municipal commissioner in getting the task done “with a view to make a sincere attempt to bring around some better and positive results”.
The bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice V D Nanavati passed orders for cleaning and rejuvenating the river after taking took suo motu cognizance of the malfunctioning of the sewage treatment plant (STP), from where improperly treated water is directly discharged into the river. The court’s interim directions have come on the basis of a report furnished by the Joint Task Force (JTF) and amicus curiae, advocate Hemang Shah.
The HC has directed the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to immediately identify unauthorized industrial wastewater connections and said it is a must to achieve good results. The court cited JTF’s findings that the mega pipeline, which takes industrial waste from the common effluent treatment plant (CETP) to the river, has few unauthorised sewage connections and AMC’s gutter lines have illegal connections of industrial wastewater disposal. “We direct that the identification and disconnection of all such unauthorized connections be done by the custodian/owner of the respective pipeline network. The actions and the outcome shall be shared among the stakeholders from time to time,” the court ordered.
The court also ordered all CETPs to ensure operational OCEMS with connectivity to Gujarat Pollution Control Board’s portal. They will have to list technical reasons for non-compliance.
The court has ordered the civic body to ensure scientific operation of all STPs and to explore the in-situ treatment of drains carrying sewage to the river till it makes proper arrangements for sewerage system and STP. The civic body has been ordered to “sincerely explore” provision of neutralization of wastewater received at STPs to prevent disturbance of biological treatment system of STP. “This would also protect the river as well as the plant machinery. This provision will be preventive. The identification and check on unauthorized acidic effluent discharge shall be ensured through coordinated surveillance,” the court said, directing AMC to carry out regular verification and strengthen continuous online analysers for data reliability.
The court has posted further hearing on this issue on December 3.
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