A monitoring committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) led by Justice Pritam Pal and including retired IAS officer Urvashi Gulati on Thursday inspected Sukhna choe and N-Choe in the wake of illegal discharge of unprocessed sewage into them.
The green panel directed the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) to expedite the work to locate the sources from where waste sewage was entering the choes and stop the flow at the earliest.
Municipal commissioner KK Yadav, who was also present during the inspection, briefed the panel that MC has identified 28 points from where waste was being discharged into these choes illegally.
The N-Choe has 16 outlets and Sukhna has 12. Yadav told the panel that 20 of these points have been plugged, while the remaining ones will be closed in next 45 days.
As per Yadav, these points mostly carried sewage from individual houses through stormwater drainage. He assured the committee that these choes will have no flow of dirty water in near future.
The panel is concerned about pollution levels in Sukhna choe and N-choe since both these rivulets are tributaries of Ghaggar and among the sources of high-level contamination in the river, restoration of which is being monitored by NGT since 2016.
{{/usCountry}}The panel is concerned about pollution levels in Sukhna choe and N-choe since both these rivulets are tributaries of Ghaggar and among the sources of high-level contamination in the river, restoration of which is being monitored by NGT since 2016.
{{/usCountry}}The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had earlier, too, written to the Chandigarh civic body to bring down the pollution level in city’s rivulets.
HIGH BOD LEVEL IN N-CHOE
Water quality of both Sukhna choe and N-Choe as monitored by the Chandigarh Pollution Control Board indicates that the level of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is much higher than the permissible limit of 10mg per litre.
A low BOD is an indicator of good quality water, while a high BOD points at pollution. As per the NGT order dated November 22, outlets from Sectors 10,15, 53 and Attawa were discharging untreated sewage into the N-Choe. There are four more outlets, including from Colony Number 4 and Hallomajra, which are discharging sewage into the Sukhna choe.
The Thursday inspection started from Kishangarh and ended at the Garden of Springs in Sector 53. The committee also appreciated the efforts made by the public health wing in reducing the flow of water at certain points, but told it to ensure that there was no movement of polluted water in both these choes. The green tribunal will hear the matter on January 17.