From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, March 23: In a hard-hitting remark, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has castigated government officials for bungling in solid waste management and preventing pollution since sewage is directly being dumped into the Umshyrpi river near Shillong Law College and Wah Umkhrah.
The watchdog, in its hearing on Wednesday, said that it appears during interaction that the officers are not acquainted with the steps which need to be taken to mitigate the problem as per established guidelines. “Instead of preventing pollution, they have stated that the plan is not to prevent discharge but in-situ or Phycoremediation which may not be wise unless treated water is to be used for non-potable purposes instead of discharge in sources of fresh water,” the bench said.
Headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, the bench asked the Chief Secretary to comply with the established guidelines and disposed of the matter. The Tribunal had taken up the matter following a report on this issue published in The Shillong Times on February 23, 2022. The Tribunal commented that untreated sewage or other waste should not be discharged into sources of potable water which is an offence under the Water Act. “The State of Meghalaya must re-visit its practices and policies accordingly and ensure that no faecal enters into drains or through drains to the rivers in question,” it said in the order.
The central environment body asked for completion of door-to-door survey and ordered that households should be given notices to link with centralised and decentralised facilities for sewage management set up by the state agencies. The State may go by options in guidelines of the Ministry of Urban Affairs and observations in the above order of this Tribunal,” it added.
“Tribunal noted the huge gap in compliance of solid and liquid waste management norms and the state government committed to deposit Rs 109 crore in a ring-fenced account to address the gaps,” the order said.
The matter has been taken up in view of captioned media reports that untreated sewage is directly being dumped into river Umshyrpi near Shillong Law College and river Wah Umkhrah at Demthring, Meghalaya.
Trade effluents are also being discharged in the Lukha river and on inspection, the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board found the river water to have turned blue and also found Lunar river to be highly acidic. There are cement factories which are also a source of pollution, apart from power plants, breweries and ferro-alloy companies, the tribunal observed.