Though the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board claims to have reduced industrial pollution along the Cauvery in Mysuru district, the flow of untreated domestic sewage neutralises whatever gains that have been made.
The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has established sewage treatment plants, but there are missing links, as a result of which untreated sewage flows into the waterbodies and subsequently discharges into the Cauvery or the Kabini, two important sources for drinking water for Mysuru and Bengaluru.
Sampling stations for the Cauvery are located at eight points. Long stretch of the Cauvery, between Srirangapatna and Sathegala, near Kollegal, has been deemed polluted. The KSPCB is set to issue criminal notice to the MCC. “We have already lodged criminal complaints against the local bodies at T. Narsipur, Hunsur, Nanjangud, and K.R. Nagar,” said Prakash, Environmental Officer, KSPCB, Mysuru. Consequently, the State government has taken steps to establish sewage treatment plants. The focus will be on city corporations followed by CMCs, TMCs and taluk panchayats, and these are in various stages of completion, he added.
But what is disconcerting is the increasing chemical contamination of the Cauvery in some places and this has been attributed to run-offs from agricultural fields where chemical pesticides and insecticides are used.
