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Water Treatment

Hoskote still uses City's sewage for irrigation

Thursday, 23 January 2014 10:22 administrator
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Deccan Herald             23.01.2014 

Hoskote still uses City's sewage for irrigation

Authorities in Hoskote town, which has been using Bangalore’s sewage water for last two and half years for irrigation, potable and non-potable purposes, have chalked out a plan to revive 29 tanks to solve the water crisis.  But the proposal is gathering dust due to age-old agreement.

The minor irrigation department, after detailed study of 20 years, had drawn up a mechanism by which sewage from east and north Bangalore entering Yellamallappashetty Lake through stormwater drains was lifted to Doddakere in Hoskote.

This water was used for irrigation purposes. It is still being used to cultivate vegetables and fruits. Just by diverting sewage water from Yellamallappashetty Tank near K R Puram in Bangalore Urban District to Doddakere in Bangalore Rural District, water problem of Hoskote Taluk had been solved to a large extent. This also helped restore 40 per cent of borewells in the area. People here, even now use this water (drawn from borewells) for potable and non-potable purposes. Water quality analysis shows it is not polluted and fit for consumption.

“After tasting success here, we chalked out another proposal to revive 29 more tanks in Hoskote Town. The proposal, along with design plans, was submitted through Urban Water Supply and Sewage Board. The proposal was first mooted eight years ago. But the plan never moved forward. It was proposed again three years ago but has been stalled due to objections raised by Tamil Nadu government to projects in Dakshin Pinakini basin,” an official said. In 1892, Madras and Mysore governments had entered into an agreement that Tamil Nadu should be consulted before diverting or using water from this river. But officials here now question: “There is no river as it has dried up. Instead, sewage water flows through it. So the project can be implemented.”

The project of reviving 29 tanks will cost the government Rs 45 crore. According to department officials, if 2.57 tmc ft is pumped for seven months, it will fill around 1,000 borewells in the taluk and help over two lakh people.

Hoskote Town Municipal Council Junior Engineer Poornima N said due to this ground water level which was below 1,000 ft has now increased to over 800 ft. Last year there was heavy rainfall due to which Doddakere and Yelemallappa Shetty Lake filled up. Now if the project is delayed and there are no rains, the water problems will intensify again. For the last two years we have been depending on this sewage water lake for all needs and have been using it too, she said.

 

Civic Body to Establish 150 Reverse Osmosis Water Plants in City

Monday, 06 January 2014 10:43 administrator
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The New Indian Express             06.01.2014

Civic Body to Establish 150 Reverse Osmosis Water Plants in City

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to set up 150 reverse osmosis water plants in the city by involving self help groups and slum level federations, Mayor M Majid Hussain has said.

Speaking to newsmen after the face-to-face programme here on Saturday, the Mayor along with GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar said that one slum in each ward of the GHMC would set up the reverse osmosis water plant in the next three months at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

Apart from providing safe and pure portable drinking water to the slum dwellers through water cans at affordable price, this would help in providing jobs to about 1,000 youths.

The door-to-door water cans would be supplied on two wheelers by the youth.

By supplying packaged drinking water to the slum-dwellers, it would help  check the spread of water-borne diseases more particularly among the children who are prone to the diseases, the commissioner said.

When asked about about blocking of roads in front of the police stations by the seized vehicles, additional DCP (Traffic), S Satyanarayana admitted that seized vehicles are parked due to lack of space in the police stations. There is also constraint of space in the traffic police stations.

Efforts are being made to identify open spaces in the city to shift the seized vehicles and see that no seized vehicles are found on the main roads, he added.

In view of the last week fire accident at a timber depot in Musheerabad, the commissioner said that a survey is being carried out to identify hazardous businesses like timber depots, plastic units and others being carried out in the residential localities. Wherever such hazardous businesses are found, the GHMC would cancel the trade licenses of these units, he said.

As many as 38 complaints relating to town planning, drinking water problems and traffic were received during the face-to-face programme.

 

‘State has dropped plan to let sewage into Bhima’

Tuesday, 31 December 2013 05:34 administrator
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The Hindu              31.12.2013

‘State has dropped plan to let sewage into Bhima’

Minister for Municipal Administration and Waqf Qamarul Islam presiding over the quarterly review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme in Gulbarga on Monday.— PHOTO: ARUN KULKARNI
Minister for Municipal Administration and Waqf Qamarul Islam presiding over the quarterly review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme in Gulbarga on Monday.— PHOTO: ARUN KULKARNI

Minister for Municipal Administration and Waqf Qamarul Islam has said that the government has given up the idea of diverting the sewage into the Bhima at a point near the Saradagi barrage, from where the bulk water is lifted for providing drinking water. The sewage would be impounded and treated before letting it into the river.

Presiding over the quarterly review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) here on Monday, Mr. Islam said that a team of experts from Bangalore, deputed by the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board, had visited the spot where the sewage mixed with the Bhima. The team members had said that the proposal mooted by the board to divert the water through a closed canal and allowing it to merge with the river in the downstream of Saradagi barrage at a cost of Rs. 14 crore, would not serve any purpose.

The threat to the health of people drinking the water drawn from the Bhima would continue to remain. The only solution was to treat the sewage before letting it into the river. The State government had accepted the report of experts and directed the KUWSDB to upgrade the existing oxidation plant, located near the Bhima, into a sewage treatment plant, and allow only treated sewage to flow into the Bhima, as a permanent solution. Mr. Islam said that the government had also given its green signal to take up the work on underground drainage (UGD) system in Aland and Wadi in Chittapur taluk and drinking water project to Sedam. The district administration had been directed to issue 4(1) notification for the acquisition of land required for implementing these projects.

Aland MLA B.R. Patil, who spoke on the issue, said that owing to non-availability of suitable land, the UGD work sanctioned to Aland town could not be taken up in time. Many projects sanctioned to taluk headquarters could not be taken up for want of land. The government should create a land bank with about 25 to 100 acres in and around all taluk headquarters for taking up the projects, including the newly sanctioned schools, hospitals and other infrastructure facilities, he said.

 
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