The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a recent order asked the Telangana government to pay a compensation of Rs 3800 crore, for its failure in the management of solid and liquid waste. In an order dated September 29, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel observed that apart from ensuring compliance with waste management rules, the state’s liability for past violations has to be fixed. The bench has imposed a penalty of Rs 3648 crore for the gap in the treatment of sewage or liquid waste, and Rs 177 crore for failing to scientifically manage solid waste – amounting to Rs 3825 crore which the bench rounded off to Rs 3800 crore.
“The total compensation comes to Rs 3825 crores, or say Rs 3800 crores, which may be deposited by the State of Telangana in a separate ring-fenced account within two months, to be operated as per directions of the Chief Secretary and utilised for restoration measures. It will be open to the State to plan raising funds from generators/contributors to waste,” the NGT order said.
According to information shared with the NGT by Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on September 28, the current gap in sewage treatment was 1824.42 MLD (million litres per day). Referring to a recent NGT order in which the compensation for untreated liquid waste was determined to be Rs 2 crore per MLD, the total compensation for Telangana’s untreated sewage was fixed at Rs 3648 crore. For unprocessed legacy waste, the compensation was earlier fixed at Rs 300 per tonne. In Telangana, with 5.9 MT (million tonnes) of un-remediated legacy waste, the total compensation for failure to scientifically manage solid waste works out to Rs 177 crore.
The order also noted that the sanctity of natural storm water drains needs to be maintained. “Failure of duties of the State on this aspect has resulted in rivers like Musi in Hyderabad becoming channel to carry sewerage which needs to be remedied. Sewage should be separately managed without mixing it in storm water drains/rivers/waterbodies,” it said.
The restoration measures for sewage management would include: setting up sewage treatment and utilisation systems, upgrading systems/operations of existing sewage treatment facilities to ensure utilisation of their full capacities, ensuring compliance with standards, including those of faecal coliform and setting up proper faecal sewage and sludge management in rural areas, the tribunal said. With regard to solid waste management, the execution plan would include setting up of required waste processing plants and remediation of left-out sites.
Bio-remediation/bio-mining processes need to be executed as per CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) guidelines and the stabilised organic waste from biomining as well as from compost plants needs to comply with laid down specifications. Further, the tribunal asked the Chief Secretary to file six monthly progress reports with verifiable progress on the issue.
The NGT was dealing with the issue of solid and liquid waste management as per the orders of a 2014 Supreme Court ruling. The tribunal also directed the Telangana government to devise an operative mechanism by which service providers with due diligence processes can execute work relating to solid and sewage management simultaneously throughout the state - all districts, cities and towns. Considering the environmental compensation imposed for restoration dovetailed with the state budget and availability of confirmed sites, there should not be any difficulty in execution without delay, it added.
"The Chief Secretary may consider designating a Senior Nodal Officer at the rank of ACS to regularly assess the progress in bridging the gaps in Sewage and solid waste management and establishing stock taking at the District levels. Existing and upcoming STPs need to have linkages with industries and other bulk users including Agriculture/horticulture for using treated sewage. Legacy waste sites need to be remediated and reclaimed areas utilized for setting up of waste processing plants so as to process day-to-day waste generation," the order read.
With IANS inputs