Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme
SHILLONG: A delegation of Committee on Environment of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly inspected the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme (GSWSS) on Tuesday and raised concerns on turbidity of water and the sludge released to environment.
Chairman of the committee SK Sunn said a request will be made to the PHE and Forest departments to take necessary steps to declare the dam of GSWSS as National Wetland area.
He added that such a tag would help people reap benefits and also be encouraged to protect the dam.
The Umiew Water Supply project, which supplies water to the state capital of Shillong, has a catchment area of 115 sq.km.
He said the turbidity of the river water is not less than 1500 NTU. He said when the water reaches the treatment plant and it releases the waste water it would dirty the streams.
He also said the turbidity is due to the sand and stone quarry upstream of the dam.
“The committee has decided to revise the scheme for onsite treatment of sludge so that the untreated sludge is not released to the environment,” he said adding that the committee will request the government to sanction the scheme.
Meanwhile, member of the committee HM Shangpliang said the sludge is being let out to the stream posing environmental hazard affecting villages such as Lyngiong, Lyngkien, Sohiong. He said, “The PHE has twice submitted a proposal for treatment of sludge water. This sludge water could have been re-used instead of letting it out in the stream.”
He went on to add that such a move will cost the government Rs 15 crore which was refused by the Planning department.
He informed that the committee decided to conduct the inspection of GSWSS as concerns were raised about the environment and climate change that will affect the water supply system.
Stating that every department has to have the climate change adaptation programme, he said the Phase-III project of the GSWSS is a climate change adaptation programme.
Speaking about the PHE-PWD tussle, Sunn said PHE is finding it difficult to complete some of the projects due to opposition from PWD and some projects were stalled.
He said the committee has asked the PHE to start the projects at the earliest.
Shangpliang rued the conventional ways of treating water by using alum and lime and said the PHE department should come up with the latest technology.
He went on to add that the committee visited the JNV School and criticised it for its carelessness in not treating the sewage plant even as it has 400 students.
“The entire sewage of the school is being let out into the dam of the GSWSS. The sewage is polluting the dam water downstream. The sewage plant of the school is not functioning,” he said.
Shangpliang informed that the committee has given the school authorities a week to set things right threatening otherwise to close it down.