Aurangabad, June 28:
In a positive development, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) authorities and the delegation of Sundarwadi Panchayat, will be meeting to discuss an implementation plan to reuse treated water from Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Jhalta, soon.
The deputy engineer (sewage) Anil Tanpure said, " The AMC has signed a tripartite agreement, with Sundarwadi Grampanchayat and the farmers, during the lockdown period. The farmers had submitted the challan also. The capacity of Jhalta STP is 35 MLD, but we are able to treat 8-10 MLD only. The functioning of this renovated STP plant got started in 2019. The cost is Rs 29 crore. The village farmers, however, put a condition of constructing a water pond (farm pond). Hence, the AMC will be constructing a pond of 5 lakh litres capacity (0.5 MLD) on the STP campus. Hence the treated water will be transported through the tanker from the STP to the pond. Accordingly, the farmers will lift and transport the treated water by laying pipelines till their farms."
It is learnt that the visionary AMC municipal commissioner A K Pandey has played an active role in encouraging reuse of treated sewage water. This is the reason why the Salim Ali Lake's treated sewage water is being used to maintain around 100 small and big gardens of the municipal corporation in the city; talk regarding the reuse of treated water from Kanchanwadi STP is also underway and Jhalta STP has been materialised.
" The state government has drafted a policy to boost the rural economy through irrigation. It has recommended on supply of treated sewage water to the farmers and the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (WRRA) had fixed the tariff order on bulk supply of this treated sewage water to the farmers from the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) on per cubic meter basis and crop season basis (like Kharif or Rabi). Hence the AMC will supply the treated water from its STP to the farmers staying in the jurisdiction of Sundarwadi Grampanchayat. The tariff would be between 0.009 and 0.045 paise per cubic meter."
According to experts, " We are glad that the treated sewage water is being reused or else the AMC was releasing it in the Sukhana River. The treated water is also called organic water. Hence it will definitely help increases the fertility of the land and help to bring smiles on the faces of the farmers."