Corporation starts bio-remediation at Arthala drain as pilot project, will give relief to river Hindon

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has started a pilot project to improve the quality of the waste water discharge from the Arthala drain into the Hindon river.

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has started a pilot project to improve the quality of the waste water discharge from the Arthala drain into the Hindon river.

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There are 10 major drains in Ghaziabad that discharge their untreated contents into the Hindon river, thereby polluting it. These drains carry both domestic and commercial waste. Since the last many years, these discharges have resulted in the increase of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

“The pilot-project involves pouring an organic solution into the drain that will help in reducing odour and improve quality. We are likely to get the first results of the experiment in five days,” said Brijesh Kumar Singh, general manager (water works) from the corporation. “The process has been initiated on directions of national green tribunal (NGT) and tenders for other drains will also be floated soon.”

“Both BOD and COD are basically impurities in water. If the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels are high, the BOD and COD will reduce. Bio-remediation involves releasing microorganisms which destroy impurities. But, a constant monitoring of results should be reviewed on periodic basis to gauge improvement,” said Dr Chandravir Singh, an environmentalist and a retired scientist from Haryana pollution board.

In its status report filed before the NGT on August 27, the corporation has stated that survey was done for 10 drains which fall into river Hindon. These were identified as Karhera drain, Hindon Vihar drain, Kaila Bhatta drain, Arthala drain, Sarvodaya Nagar drain, Rahul Vihar drain, Indirapuran drain, Dasna drain and Nandgram drain near Petrol Pump besides the one near City Forest’s main gate.

The corporation has also engaged National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to prepare detailed project report for the 10 drains.

“The condition of the river is in bad state as it has almost negligible amount of dissolved oxygen which could help in propagation of aquatic life. Major pollution sources are the drains which are flowing untreated into the river. Once the corporation has started the process, they must continue it and monitor results,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist.

According to the official records of the UP pollution control board, the river stretch from Saharanpur to Ghaziabad has presence of 31 drains of which two are partially tapped while rest 29 are untapped.

The records mention that river Hindon gets total discharge of 674.03 MLD which includes 595.64 MLD from sewage discharge (with 224 MLD treated and 371.64 untreated) while the rest of about 78.39 is treated industrial discharge.

To gauge the state of river Hindon, the official records of the UP pollution control board states that the three stretches of river Hindon falling in Ghaziabad at Karhera, Mohan Nagar overbridge and Chhijarsi has dissolved oxygen levels in range of 0.62 to 2.4 mg/litre, 0.48 to 1.87 mg/litre and 0.0 to 1.7 mg/litre, respectively, during the period January to September this year.

According to officials, DO levels about 5 mg/litres or above are suitable for propagation of aquatic life.