Combating pollution in its rivers, Punjab Government has put on fast track the ambitious project of cleaning of its three major rivers — Sutlej, Beas, and Ghaggar.
"Punjab Chief Minister is weekly monitoring the progress of this project and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) is taking all steps to complete this project within timeline," PPCB chairman Ravinder Singh said on Monday.
He said that to control domestic pollution, 45 towns located on or near the banks of these rivers have been selected for the installation of sewage treatments plants (STPs) to stop the discharge of untreated effluent into these rivers.
"The work in 37 towns of river Satluj and Beas has already been started and some of the STPs have already been commissioned and are in operation. Nineteen STPs in various cities have already been installed," he added.
Chairman said that in order to stop the discharge of treated domestic sewage from these STPs into rivers, the Department of Soil Conservation and Irrigation have prepared irrigation schemes at the cost of Rs333.90 crore to utilise the treated effluent for irrigation in the command area available.
"In some of the cities, including Anandpur Sahib, this project has already been implemented and whole of the treated effluent from the city is being utilised for irrigation purposes in nearby fields. Thus, no effluent from this city is being discharged into river Sutlej now," he added.
Ravinder Singh said that for the control of industrial pollution in these rivers, all the industries located on the catchment areas of Sutlej river have been persuaded successfully to install their individual treatment plants.
He added that PPCB was receiving major complaints against two major industries of Naya Nangal — National Fertilisers limited (NFl) and Punjab Alkalies and Chemicals limited (PACl) — who were discharging effluents directly in the river Sutlej that was adversely affecting the fish population.
"They have been persuaded to change over to zero liquid discharge (ZlD) technology, resulting in no discharge of trade effluent from these industries into river Sutlej after that no incident of fish killing due to discharge of industrial effluents in river Sutlej is reported in last two years," he added.
PPCB chairman added that the treatment plants have been provided for industrial and domestic effluent of Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant at Ropar and authorities are successfully persuaded to re-utilise treated effluents within plant and for plantation purposes.