Pune: Green activists have said Mula and Mutha rivers have become sewage-carrying water bodies with 267 MLD waste being discharged into them without any treatment daily. In order to correct the situation, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) plans to operationalise five STPs and increase sewage treatment capacity by 290 MLD by the end of the year, said civic commissioner Naval Kishore Ram.The civic body treats only 477 MLD of the 744 MLD sewage generated daily. PMC’s sewage treatment capacity stands at 567 MLD currently. The administration has now undertaken pollution abatement of Mula and Mutha rivers to deal with the problem and reduce discharge into the rivers.“PMC will open five sewage treatment plants under pollution abatement of Mula and Mutha rivers. It will increase the capacity of treatment significantly,” said Ram in a press statement.Civic officials said the pollution abatement project (old limit) was sanctioned under ministry of environment, forest and climate change’s National River Conservation Plan in 2016, with a project cost of Rs990.3 crore. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) approved the loan for the plan through the Centre. The central govt sanctioned a grant of Rs841.7 crore (85%) and PMC’s share is Rs148.5 crore (15%).At present, PMC officials said that under the JICA project, a total of 11 STPs are to be established. Four (with a total capacity of 81 MLD) have been commissioned. Work on a 15 MLD STP at Tanajiwadi is in progress and will be completed by Sept 2027. A no-objection certificate (NOC) was recently received for land required for a 10 MLD STP at the Botanical Garden and the work was likely to complete within the next two years. Additionally, five STPs would be ready over the next four months.Activists urged the administration to follow the deadline and also make provisions for the future needs of the city. Since the limits are expanding at a fast rate, PMC should focus on its sewage treatment infrastructure. They said generation of sewage had increased due to migration and merger of 32 villages into the civic limits.Shailaja Deshpande of Jeevitnadi, an organisation working for river restoration and other environmental issues, said, “River pollution should be taken up on priority. PMC should not waste funds on projects like riverfront development, which may lead to environmental issues later.”Meanwhile, PMC has clubbed all STP plans and sewage packages under the One City, One Operator concept. PMC submitted the repackaging proposal in Aug 2020 and it was approved by JICA in Sept that year. The project works were launched by PM Narendra Modi in March 2022.
