Bangalore gets 20 sewage treatment plants

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Bangalore gets 20 sewage treatment plants

BANGALORE, JUNE 13, 2009: In a move to tackle shortage of water in Bangalore City, Karnataka Government has decided to set up 20 more Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in the city with an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore to treat sewage water.

Minister for Information and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) Katta Subramanya Naidu on Friday chaired a meeting of BWSSB officials said a plan has been prepared to treat 700 million litres per day (MLD) sewage and supply it for non-domestic purposes at 50 per cent rates of drinking water. The work on the projects was expected to start by June end.

The city has currently 11 STPs and out of them three were under repair. A sum of Rs 300 crore would be spent on replacing old drinking water supply pipelines. Though the Bangalore City required 1250 MLD of drinking water, only 850 MLD was being supplied now, he said.

Earlier, Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai and Mr. Naidu held a meeting with top officials of the Water Resources and BWSSB and come out a plan to undertake a survey of the 40 km stretch of the Arkavathi catchment area from Nandi hills upto Thippagondanahalli (T G Halli) reservoir to identify encroachments and clear them. The survey work would commence from July 15. T G Halli reservoir now supplies about 30 MLD of drinking water to parts of the city, they said.

Following of encroachment of catchment areas of the river, there has been a decline in the inflow of water from the Arkavathi river to T.G Halli and Hesarghatta reservoirs. Both reservoirs supplied about 60 MLD per day to the City. Officials of BWSSB and Water Resources Department would jointly conduct the survey for desilting lakes and water courses in the entire catchment area and curb the activity of mining in the catchment areas, they said.

Officials of different departments such as Minor Irrigation, Public Works, Watershed Departments, Mines and Geology, Forest and Ecology, and Bangalore Rural and Urban districts deputy commissioners would be roped in clear encroachments, stop mining, quarrying and stone crushing activities, and monitor exploitation of groundwater, ministers said.

Clearance and revival of water sources would augment water to the tune of 2000 meter cubic feet (MCF) both reservoirs, they said. The inflow was about 824 MCF in 2007.