Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur who visited the sewage treatment plant (STP) of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) at Pachanady assured that complaints regarding the release of secondary treated water to the drinking water dam across the Phalguni River will be solved soon.
He said a spot visit was conducted based on complaints raised by corporators from the ruling party and opposition regarding various problems pertaining to MCC’s STPs.
The mayor told reporters that there was an allegation that the treated water from the STP at Pachanady was being released into the drinking water barrage built across the Phalguni River. “The STP receives 8.8 MLD of sewage, and it is being treated at the secondary level regularly. Nearly 6.5 MLD of secondary treated water is being pumped to the tertiary treatment plant (TTP) at Pilikula.The remaining 2.3 MLD of secondary treated water from the STP at Pachanady was flowing to the river. To address this issue, a new pipeline has been laid at a cost of Rs 2.8 crore, and it has already been commissioned. Meanwhile, a tender has been invited to build a pumphouse with two pumps of 60 HP capacity each, at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh under the 15th Finance Commission funding to release the excessive secondary treated water from the STP. Soon, the work will be completed, so that not a single drop of secondary treated water from the STP will go into the drinking water barrage,” the mayor said.
He added that with the new arrangements, the excessive secondary treated water from the STP will be released downstream of the dam. Another tender will be invited for the recruitment of manpower on contract for one year, for the technical maintenance of the STP.
An engineer will also be appointed for the proper maintenance of the STP, he said, adding that a Rs 1.3 crore tender will be invited soon. Initiatives will also be taken to upgrade facilities at the STP, and thereby maintain a better biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the treated water.
A detailed project report (DPR) for the upgradation of the STP will also be prepared soon, the mayor said.
