The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a serious warning of the epidemic in Prayagraj after the 49-day Kumbh Mela. The mega festival celebrated from January 15 to March 4 has left the city into dirt and filth.
The green court has alarmed the city about a probable outbreak of an epidemic, reports Hindustan Times. They have also issued a strict set of rules to keep a check on pollution of the Ganga in the coming years.
The NGT has instructed UP chief secretary to pay immediate attention towards the deteriorating conditions alongside the Ganga in Prayagraj and take urgent steps to dispose of the solid waste and fix accountability of officers in this regard.
A report filed by the NGT under Justice Arun Tandon, demands urgent need to deal with the conditions to avoid epidemic in the city.
“Dirty water from toilets was being collected in kutcha pits. The base of the soak pits had not been lined and the dirty water could percolate underground. The committee found that a large number of toilets were constructed in camps on the Arail side, very close to the river.” the report said.
The Rajapur Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) received excess sewage than the installed capacity. Only 50% of the Rajapur drain was being treated through geo tube (it extracts solid waste from the waste going in the drain so that only water enters it) and the remaining 50 percent was being permitted to enter the Ganga without treatment,” NGT said.
Saying that they have done their best, municipal commissioner, Prayagraj, Amrendra Verma, said, “The municipal corporation is not directly responsible for disposal of solid waste as the private firm has been allotted a tender for the job. Since the firm failed to do its work efficiently, a notice has been issued for completing the task at the earliest. Municipal Commissioner Ujjawal Kumar was directly monitoring waste disposal of the Kumbh Mela but he is on leave and will be back after a couple of days.”
Elaborating on the unsatisfactory arrangements, NGT said, “The Mawaiya Nala, where the technology has been adopted, had a bypass because of which untreated water from the drain entered the Ganga. The committee also found that there existed a big, dirty water pond at Parmarth Niketan Arail and human excreta was seen floating in it.”
“Creation of bypass at places where geo-tube technology had been adopted has let dirty water enter the river,” it added.
Ingio Contractors Private Ltd, the firm that implemented the geo-tube technologY during the Kumbh said, “We completely disagree with the findings of the NGT committee as far as geo-tube technology for filtering the sewage water is concerned. We will contest the findings tooth and nail and justify our working before the tribunal.”
“Pucca constructions were being raised on the Yamuna bank and despite notices, the authorities did not disclose as to who had sanctioned the maps/building plans. The administration was trying to “hoodwink the cleaning of waste from the soak pits and septic tanks and ponds,” NGT claimed.
We hope that the blame game stops soon and urgent steps are taken to deal with the pollution!