Mumbai: The State Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a policy to recycle and reuse sewage from urban areas, which the government claims would help curb water pollution.
The policy assigns the responsibility to treat the sewage to civic bodies.
Maharashtra annually uses 164 TMC water for home use and 22 TMC for industrial, of which 80% and 97.5% respectively turns into sewage. As per the government estimate, the State generates 152 TMC sewage every year, but it processes only 15 to 25 TMC.
“As per the policy, recycling and reuse of sewage will be the primary responsibility of local civic bodies. The local bodies will have to create a master plan and implement it. They will have to take help from research institutes such as IIT or NEERI for the secondary and tertiary treatment of sewage,” an official said after the Cabinet meeting.
The treated water will primarily be used for non-potable purposes such as in thermal power centres, industrial areas, railways and agriculture.
For power centres and industrial areas, reuse of water will be mandatory within three years, and new projects will have to take this into account in the planning stage. The policy says that the necessary projects will be set up through public-private partnerships and from funds under various State and Central schemes.
A committee under Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) will evaluate the feasibility and financial stability of the proposals for these projects. In case a local body decides to make 100% investment in the project, no scrutiny will be required.
