Months after the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) made it mandatory for apartment complexes with more than 20 housing units to build a sewage treatment plant (STP) as well as ‘reuse’ the water, a study conducted on a small sample size of installed STPs revealed that not one of them was fully compliant. To be so, 100 per cent of the waste water should have been reused.
The researchers of Ashoka Trust for the Environment and Ecology (ATREE) had approached 50 resident welfare associations, but only 17 agreed to participate.
The study — 'Decentralised waste water treatment and reuse in Bengaluru: success or failure?' — found that of the 17 STPs sampled, one was not even established though it said otherwise on paper. Six were categorised as having poor compliance and 10 were partially compliant.
"As many as 2,200 apartments have CFE (Consent for establishment) to install STPs. But only 612 are operational with an installed capacity of 109 MLD," said Pradeep Kuttuva, who was part of the team that conducted the study in April-June 2015.
The cost factorThe researchers also found was that an important factor was the economics involved in installing and maintaining an STP. While bigger apartments incurred smaller costs in operating STPs and vice versa, the savings from utilising the treated water was found to make sense only to apartment complexes that rely only on tanker water (two cases in the sample). The lack of economic incentive was cited as a determining factor.
Lakshman, Chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board said checks are being undertaken on STPs in apartments and those found not meeting standards have been issued notices.
