Files status report in High Court, says no
treated or untreated effluent being discharged from treatment plant
into public sewer.
The presence of heavy metals
The presence of
heavy metals zinc, nickel, chrome, lead and copper in the Buddha
Nullah of Ludhiana is down.
The Punjab Pollution Control Board filed a
status report in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday, listing
the steps taken to reduce pollution and its results. The findings of
the study conducted to ascertain pollution-level in this nullah also
find place in the report.
This, said the pollution board, has been
possible because of the anti-pollution measures adopted due to
consistent judicial intervention.
The High Court has been monitoring the progress
of antipollution measures, which the Punjab government has been forced
to take. The High Court had once directed to immediately close the
industries discharging effluents directly or indirectly into Buddha
Nullah.
The PPCB said, "No treated or untreated effluent
is being discharged from the common effluent treatment plant into the
public sewer or Buddha Nullah." On the contrary, the treated effluent
from the common effluent treatment plant is being used as process
water by a nearby dyeing industry for "re-cycling and reusing the
entire discharge."
The analysis of the samples of 2006, 2008 and
2010 indicated that the presence of some heavy metals that indicate
the pollution-level in the water was also within the limits prescribed
for drinking purpose.
For instance, in 2006, the presence of total
chrome the most polluting heavy metal was 0.530 mg per litre and in
2010 it came down to 0.18 mg per litre. Similarly, cadmium and lead
came down within permissible limits. In 2006, the presence of zinc was
1.71, which is now 0.87 mg per litre. Nickel presence came down from
5.050 in 2006 to 0.11 this year, while copper is down to 0.07 from
0.390. The permissible limit for drinking water is 5.0 mg per litre.
The
electroplating and dyeing industries were major contributors of
pollution. Their total discharge into the Nullah was four million
litre per day (MLD). The domestic sewage of about 350 MLD of Ludhiana
city was another major source of pollution in this Nullah that flows
into the Sutlej river. This 350 MLD domestic sewage was earlier being
discharged "untreated" into the Nullah, the PPCB said.
Now, three sewage treatment plants with a
capacity of 311 MLD, have been installed in Ludhiana to treat domestic
sullage.
There are six large and 482 small-scale
electroplating industries in Ludhiana. The PPCB said fall in the
pollution-level became possible after the installation of a common
effluent treatment plant at Focal Point, Phase-VIII, for the treatment
of the effluent generated by small-scale electroplating industries.
The PPCB has set March 31 deadline for the six
large and medium-scale electroplating industries to adopt zero-liquid
discharge technology. Four such industries have already installed the
Reverse Osmosis System.
There are 268 dyeing industries, of which 17 are
large and the remaining 251 fall in the small and medium scale. The
PPCB said two common effluent treatment plants will be installed at
Tajpur road and Bahadurke road for the treatment of effluent generated
by the small and medium-scale dyeing industries
