The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Pinkish hue back at Katedan pond

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Sunday, Nov 29, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Pinkish hue back at Katedan pond

Yogendra Kalavalapalli

Noor Mohammad Kunta turns into a cesspool with release of industrial effluents

STAFFER- PHOTO: P.V.SIVAKUMAR

‘Poisoned’: Pollutants from nearby paint and battery industries find their way to the Noor Mohammed Kunta. - PHOTO: P.V.SIVAKUMAR

HYDERABAD: Ask anyone in Katedan where Noor Mohammad Kunta is and he will draw a blank. It is only when one persists, coughing up enough hints – pond turning into a cesspool due to release of waste by industries located in the industrial estate, drawing their attention to its infamous sobriquet ‘pink pond’-- that it dawns on the locals. “Oh, the cesspool?” they ask before providing the directions.

Months after former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy inaugurated a four MLD-capacity sewage treatment plant (STP) to treat the wastewater before letting it into the pond, Noor Mohammad Kunta still remains true to its ‘pink pond’ sobriquet. Constructed by the HMDA at a cost of Rs.6.9 crore, the STP was inaugurated by Dr. Reddy on July 14, 2009.

Four-and-half months later, a faint pinkish hue has returned to the pond’s waters, though not of the same hue seen earlier.

“Over the last two or three months, the pond has regained its pinkish hue,” says a local Arif Khan.

Affirming the development, Sankar Rao, site in-charge of Kirloskar Brothers Ltd. that manages the STP on behalf of HMDA, blames it on the clandestine discharge of effluents by some companies of the Katedan Industrial Estate.

“Of late, some industries have begun releasing effluents into a smaller pond located at the outlet of Noor Mohammad Kunta near the railway track. The discharged effluents are finding their way into the bigger pond through that outlet,” he told The Hindu.

“We have notified authorities concerned about the development but don’t know if any action has been taken.”

It maybe recalled that some textile-dyeing units were identified by authorities and closed down in the past, but they were subsequently reopened. Such were the pollution levels that at one point, the chemical oxygen demand (that measures the amount of organic compounds in water) of the pond stood at 1,900 milligrams per litre as against the permissible limits of 20 to 50.

A 2007 report on ‘Polluted places – India’ supported by Poverty and Environment Programme (PEP), Asian Development Bank accused the textile and dyeing industries for actively discharging effluents into the pond and recommended “stricter enforcement of laws to control discharge of untreated effluents should be in place before remediation efforts are undertaken.”

Mr. Rao also points out that the Noor Mohammad Kunta STP is equipped only to handle sewage waste and not industrial effluents.

Chemicals released from the industry require specialised equipment to treat them and the plant is not equipped to deal with such effluents, he says.

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