Hopeful of resolution: Residents on sewage woes

Residents of low-lying localities of the town are hopeful of seeing a resolution to the overflowing sewage problem as work on setting up of a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) has reached near completion forty-five months after its foundation stone was laid in the first week of December 2020.

Clearing choked sewers and managing overflowing sewage have remained the biggest challenges for the civic body since the constitution of the AAP government in the state over 30 months ago.

Undue delay in election of an AAP-supported regular president of the MC further emerged as a major factor behind the situation wherein residents of low-lying localities failed to enjoy a dignified life in an unhygienic environment. Green Avenue, Railway road, Amarpura Mohalla, Dhulkot road, Jawahar Nagar, Chand Cinema road, Guru Nanak Pura, Gaushala road and Ring road were among the areas which get readily submerged.

Unlike normal times when overflowing sewage is handled periodically by workers of the Sanitation Department, individually in their beats, supervisory staff has to ensure that pipelines and manholes are cleared by specially constituted teams.

Though the then MP, Congress MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman and MP Dr Amar Singh Boparai had assured to get the work on STP completed within one year of laying its foundation stone 45 months ago, its commissioning is yet to be declared.

Estimated to be completed with a grant worth Rs 8 crore, the plant is expected to be capable to treat sewage disposal till population increases to one lakh from present population of 45,000.

MC president Vikas Krishan Sharma said the rank and file of the Sanitation Department had been asked to ensure that overflowing of sewage was minimised till the company installing the STP hands over its charge to the civic body.

“As sanitation is the most important element of our strategy to fight the spread of diseases, clearing of choked sewerage pipelines is the foremost task to be undertaken till STP starts functioning,” said Sharma, appreciating that workers in the Sanitation Department were all out to keep the area clean and hygienic.

Sharma said a technical team of the Sewerage Board led by Tejinder Singla had inspected various sections of the STP to check functionality and announced that the plant would start functioning after laying a part of the pipeline.

Checking overflowing sewage has remained a challenge for the civic body for a long time. The monsoon and winters used to compound the problems of residents living in low-lying areas as they had to wade through stagnant cold and stinking water frequently.

Residents alleged that defective layout of sewers and lackluster attitude of the authorities concerned had resulted in a situation where certain areas remained submerged due to frequent overflow of sewage in the past. Failure of the administration to ban use of plastics was identified as a major reason behind blocking of sewers and pipelines.

Referring to information received from engineers of the companies executing the construction work, Sharma said the project would function on Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) process mechanism. The capacity of the plant is reported to be 5 million liters daily.