The city discharges approximately 1440 million liters of sewage water and industrial wastewater every day.
Bengaluru cannot treat its total amount of sewage and wastewater. The city discharges approximately 1440 million liters (MLD) of sewage water and industrial wastewater every day. Residents complain that untreated water flows through the Vrishabhavathi canal.
Jayalaxmi, a resident of Kumbalgodu, said, “The water that flows from here is toilet water and dirty water. It smells like a toilet and you can see mosquito everywhere. The water is not clean at all. It contains dust, stone and black substances and toilet particles.”
Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWSSB) is responsible for the creation of the sewerage network and safe disposal of sewage water for the city. B.M Manjunath, Public Relations Officer of BWSSB said, “The average amount of waste produced for the city is 1400 MLD and about 1112 MLD gets treated. But BWSSB has commissioned and installed 27 STP. By the end of this year another 470 MLD, STP plants will be commissioned. It will treat 1587 MLD that will treat the full capacity of wastewater in the city.”
The STP plant of Kengeri is one of the treatment plants in the city which treats 60MLD. Rahul Priyudarshi, the Executive Engineer of Kengeri STP said that “The Kengeri plant has the civil capacity of 80MLD of treating wastewater, presently we are treating 60MLD. Approx Rs.2000 crore has been spent for the construction of the plant.”
Bengaluru is a growing metropolitan city in terms of population and has a growing need for resources. Suresh Heblikar, the founder of Eco Watch said that “The untreated water gets mixed up with the groundwater, the farmers use the water to grow their vegetable and we consume them at the end of the day. There is a need to decentralize the process of treatment and then monetize the process through private bodies which takes off the pressure of the government bodies.”
2011 census data shows the city has a population of approximately 90 lakh people. The question remains if Bengaluru is equipped enough to withstand the pressure of increasing water waste.
