World Bank comes calling to save ‘maili’ Ganga (The Pioneer 04 March 2010)

With several crore rupees going down the drain and the Ganga still remaining ‘maili’, the World Bank (WB) has proposed a project of over a thousand crore rupees to the UP government to cleanse the mighty river.

Top WB officials conferred with Chief Secretary, Atul Kumar Gupta last week and proposed the project worth a whopping Rs 1112 crore to clean the sacred river by improving the quality of effluents being discharged into it at different places.

The proposed project targets three cities of UP - Varanasi, Kanpur and Allahabad - where domestic and industrial discharge into the river is the maximum.

Principal Secretary, Environment and Urban Development, Alok Ranjan, who attended the meeting said that the talks were fruitful. “A detailed presentation was made about the capacity of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and sewage line network in Allahabad, Varanasi and Kanpur. The WB team understood our poblem and have promised to help us,” Ranjan told ‘The Pioneer’.

A proposal seeking assistance of Rs 527.70 crore for Kanpur (City), Rs 426 crore for Varanasi and Rs 159.20 crore for Allahabad was submitted.

The project focuses on improvement and up gradation of STPs, laying new sewage lines and connecting them with branch lines.

“The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, has recently revised the effluent standards of STPs. As the existing STPs are not designed for these values, therefore there improvement or upgradation is urgently required to achieve the desired effluent standards,” the official said.

Under the proposed project, over Rs 400 crore in Kanpur would be utilised in sewerage work. This includes laying of over 500 km long sewer line in the city. The Sewer line in Kanpur was first laid in 1876 and was renovated for the first time in 1923. The city being the first industrial town of UP, Kanpur witnessed emergence of leather industry. The untreated effluent of these industries were poured directly into the river Ganga.

“The focus would be at Jajmau where three Central Effluent Treatment Plants would be upgraded,” the official said. The CETPs were set up in industrial areas where industrial discharge of two or more leather units were treated before their discharge was released into the river.

In Allahabad the scheme proposes to upgrade Sewage Treatment Plant (STPs), built under ‘Ganga Action Plan -I’ at Naini and Salori areas. While in Varanasi, besides up gradation of STPs at Dinapur and Bhagwanpur, new branch sewer lines would be laid at BHU basin and Varuna basin areas.

Over Rs 200 crore would be spent on strengethening of branch sewer network in Varansi.