The Gujarat High Court has directed the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to seal three locations identified by the Gujarat Air Pollution Management Board (GPCB) where untreated sewage is discharged directly into Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati River.
The order, dated February 11, was issued in response to a suo motu public curiosity litigation (PIL) concerning industrial and sewage discharge into the river, which was made public on Thursday.
A storm water drainage behind Riverside College, a drain near CSD Depot on Cantonment Airport Street, a drain near Prachin Ranmukteshwar Mandir in Hansol, and an outfall near the Torrent Energy plant’s Ash Pond in Motera are among the locations recognised.
A division bench of Justices JB Parrdiwala and VD Nanavati, in its order, famous that it was “disturbed to know” that the samples from the three places revealed that untreated wastewater that doesn’t meet required parameters, is being immediately discharged into the Sabarmati river. It remarked that such outfalls “ought to have been examined on the earliest and measures ought to have been taken for prevention of such untreated discharge”.
The bench ordered the AMC to dam or seal all three stores inside within a week, and to begin investigating societies, buildings, and items that are dumping contaminated sewage water directly into the river.
The court also ordered AMC to conduct “an in-depth survey of all these residential societies/buildings/items within the space that do not require any legitimate drainage connection” and submit a response by February 25, the next date of hearing.
The GPCB identified to the court docket that 4 of the 14 STPs underneath AMC have been discharging large portions of sewage immediately into the river. Based on DP Shah, senior atmosphere engineer at GPCB, who was earlier than the court docket, such discharge was termed as “very harmful”.
The court docket additional directed AMC to submit its motion plan to GPCB “as early as potential” in context with the 106 MLD Previous Pirana STP, the 182 MLD New Pirana STP, the 60 MLD STP, New Pirana and the 180 MLD STP, Pirana. The bench additionally directed AMC and GPCB to accentuate its drive of figuring out the unlawful industrial connections into the sewer.
The court docket additionally directed the GPCB “to impress upon the NEERI (Nationwide Environmental Engineering Analysis Institute) to expedite getting ready its report” with respect to situation and functioning of seven CETPs and to furnish the identical inside two weeks, in order that the GPCB can ask the seven CETPs to begin endeavor the mandatory repairs.
The GPCB claimed in an affidavit that its officers were “obstructed and prevented” from performing their statutory duties and were “abused,” “threatened,” and “locked inside” a Vibrant Wash industrial unit after the unit was supposed to be discharging waste water directly into the AMC drainage line.
The court ordered GPCB to “take stern action against M/s.Vibrant Wash” and to “ask Torrent Energy to disconnect the facility provide to M/s.Vibrant Wash as soon as possible,” describing the revelations as “very surprising and alarming.”