The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered Telangana to build a new lake to compensate for building a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) within a lake in Hyderabad. The HMWSSB (Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board) has been directed to ensure that the new lake is double the size of land that the HWSSB encroached upon, and that it should be completed within one year.
Environmental activists in Telangana had taken the HMWSSB to court 10 years ago over the construction of an STP within the Full Tank Level (FTL) of the Lingam Kunta lake in Hyderabad. The issue eventually went to the NGT, which has now directed the local government body to compensate for the loss of area to the water body by substituting with a water body in another area.
“This is being suggested as a one-time measure and not to be quoted as a general principle. The new water body has to be created in one year, " noted the directions issued on August 13. The new water body being created has to be twice the area that the HMWSSB had encroached upon for building the STP. The NGT has also directed HMWSSB to fix the FTL and buffer zones of all water bodies.
National Green Tribunal directs @HMWSSBOnline to develop a new lake
— V Nilesh (@V__Nilesh) August 14, 2021
The lake must be twice the area HMWSSB encroached in Lingamkunta lake @ Chandanagar for construction of Sewage Treatment Plant
Joint committee by NGT pointed out STP is constructed inside lake's FTL #Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/y2WpQumGVq
Hyderabad, at present, has 25 STPs, with a capacity to treat 772 MLD of sewerage water, but not all of them are functional. The state government now has released funds to build 17 more STPs within Hyderabad with a capacity to treat 376.5 MLD. The new STPs are being built for a cost of Rs 1280.87 crore.
The foundation stone for the first STP, as part of the project, was laid on August 6, at Fatehnagar by Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao.
The state has plans to build as many as 62 STPs in total, of which 31 will be built within the GHMC limits. Hyderabad, on average, generates 1950 MLD of sewage water, according to the HMWSSB.