Sewage Treatment Plants

Sewage Treatment Plants

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has carried out an inventorization exercise of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) for the country in the year 2014-15. According to their report published in March 2015, 522 STPs having a total capacity of 18883.20 mld (million litres per day) are operational, 79 STPs having a total capacity of 1237.16 mld are non-operational and 145 STPs having a total capacity of 2528.36 mld are under construction in 28 States and Union Territories (UTs) in the country.

As per the report of CPCB of August 2013, performance evaluation was carried out of 152 STPs constructed under National River Conservation Plan (NRCP), out of which 63 STPs were complying with the prescribed standards, 32 STPs were not operational, 48 STPs were not complying with the prescribed standards and 9 STPs were under construction. The State Governments and implementing agencies take corrective measures to ensure adherence to standards of treatment and discharge, which include proper operation and maintenance, back-up power arrangements, etc.

CPCB has also issued directions under Section 18 1(b) of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 in April, 2015 to all State Pollution Control Boards/Pollution Control Committees to make mandatory for local/urban bodies to set up STPs of adequate capacity and provide underground sewerage system to cover the entire local/urban areas and to bridge the treatment capacity gap as well as enforcement of consent management in line with standards for sewage treatment. This information was given by Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar, in Lok Sabha today.