GUWAHATI, July 25 –

The Pollution Control Board Assam (PCBA) which is working on an action plan to clean the highly polluted Bharalu river with support of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is awaiting the draft project report from IIT- Guwahati.

A source in the PCBA said that IIT-Guwahati which had been engaged by the Board to prepare a detailed draft project report is supposed to submit the report soon. “The PCBA will then send it to the MoEF for approval and necessary action,” it said.

The PCBA had taken up the matter of checking degradation of the water quality of the Bharalu and restore it to its pre-polluted status. “The action plan involves, among other things, setting up of a sewage treatment plant with the MoEF’s support,” the source said.

As per the findings of an analysis of the water samples of the Bharalu conducted by the PCBA earlier, the water quality was found to be polluted both organically and inorganically. Bacteriological quality of the water was also very poor and practically not fit for any type of human use.

Advocating a systematic approach for cleansing the Bharalu, the PCBA had suggested identification of major pollution sources and treating of the waste water at various locations so that only treated water could be discharged into the river.

The PCBA had called for strict enforcement of regulatory compliance by the public sector undertakings, housing complexes, nursing homes, etc. “they were to treat the waste water first to meet the prescribed permissible limit and then only to were to be allowed to discharge it into the river,” the source said.

Another important suggestion related to removal of service latrines located at the river’s catchment areas besides ending the practice of throwing garbage into the river. Other recommendations included setting up of monitoring stations at several points of the Bharalu on a permanent basis for periodical assessment of the pollution status of the river, setting up of a community low-cost sewage treatment facility up by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), clearing all encroachment on the river and by the riverbank, launching mass awareness programme to educate the public on the need to keep the river clean, etc.

Unfortunately, only a few of the recommendations have so far been implemented by the authorities.

The identified sources of pollution of the Bharalu include disposal of untreated municipal sewage and solid waste, untreated wastewater disposal from domestic, commercial and other sectors, disposal of industrial effluents and other wastes including floor washing through the storm water drain from Guwahati Refinery, disposals from loco-sheds and other engineering servicing centres, including automobile servicing centres, leaching from non-septic kutcha latrines located on the river banks, disposal of effluents and other wastes from hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care units, wastes carried by surface run-off from the entire basin during the rainy season, etc.