TOI : Second phase of the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project will clean up the Arabian Sea : Aug 15,2007

FOR A SEA FREE OF POLLUTION
Here's Some Good News For Those Who Cringe At The Dirty, Grey Arabian Sea;
MSDP-II Will Give It Back Its Original Blue
Clara Lewis | TNN

Mumbai: Here's some good news for Mumbai's coastline.

    The Arabian Sea along the city's coast will finally be able to breathe
free as the Centre has cleared the deck for the second phase of the Mumbai
Sewage Disposal Project. Officials told TOI on Tuesday the Centre had agreed
in principle to amend the Coastal Regulation Zone-I notification to

allow the construction of lagoons (to treat sewage) and laying of pipes (to
dispose the treated sewage 3.5 kilometres away into the sea).

    The Centre has now asked the BMC to carry out the Environment Impact
Assessment before the final go-ahead.

    "This will improve the quality of the water around Mumbai, making the
sea a safer and better place for millions of Mumbaikars,'' a senior civic
official said.

    "Only the Thane Creek is now environmentally safe and not the Arabian
Sea,'' he added.

    The MSDP-II is an ambitious Rs-5,000-crore project to bring the entire
city within the sewerage network.

    The project is estimated to be completed in 2025, when projected
population of 16 million is expected to generate 3,400 million litres of
sewage daily, and is being designed to take care of all of that.

    Only 40 per cent of the city's population is covered by a sewerage
network right now and around 60 per cent of slum-dwellers are out of this
cover just like numerous planned pockets across the city, especially in the
western suburbs of Goregaon, Malad, Kandivli and Dahisar.

    The Centre has, so far, cleared priority work under MSDP-II amounting to
Rs 502 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM). This includes the laying of new sewer lines, replacing smaller
pipes with bigger ones and rehabilitating old lines. This will extend the
sewer network and cover 80 per cent of the total area.

    "It is the second part of MSDP-II, amounting to Rs 1,400 crore, which
involves the construction of lagoons, sewage-treatments plants, pumping
stations and laying of a pipeline on the sea-bed that requires CRZ
clearance. The treatment plants and pumping stations will be set up in
CRZ-II, where construction is allowed, but the CRZ-I notification needs to
be amended for the lagoons and the pipelines,'' additional municipal
commissioner in charge of the project Manu Kumar Srivastava said.

    A recent National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI)
study on behalf of the BMC showed the quality of water at Bhandup, Ghatkopar
and Versova, where sewage was treated by aerated lagoons before being
discharged into the sea, was good.

    And at Colaba, Worli (Love Grove) and Bandra, where the sewage is
treated and then discharged out into the sea through the marine outfalls,
the water within a kilometre of the shore meets environmental requirements;
but at 3.5 kilometres out, where the sewage is discharged, the quality is
not good.

THE JURISDICTION Each of the seven treatment plants now handles sewage from
a certain area of the city and its suburbs

COLABA: Mumbai's southern tip to Regal LOVE GROVE: Regal to Dadar BANDRA:
Dadar to Jogeshwari Subway VERSOVA: Milan Subway in Santacruz to Samarth
Nagar in Andheri MALAD: Lokhandwala in Andheri to Dahisar BHANDUP: Powai,
north of Vikhroli and Mulund GHATKOPAR: Chembur, north of Vikhroli,
Chunabhatti, Govandi

THE WAY WE WILL BE Treatment plants will ensure that the sewage that enters
the sea in 2025 will conform to pollution standards

PLANT | PROJECTED SEWAGE FLOW IN 2025 Colaba 31 million litres daily Love
Grove 399 MLD Bandra 241 MLD Dharavi 337 MLD Versova 278 MLD Malad 644 MLD
Gorai 39 MLD Bhandup 253 MLD Ghatkopar 400 MLD TOTAL 2622 MLD PLANS FOR
SECOND PHASE

The second phase of the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project has made specific
plans to treat sewage before it is discharged into the sea

    Primary treatment plants will be constructed at Colaba, Worli and
Bandra.

    The sewage-handling capacity of the lagoons at four places - Versova,
Malad, Bhandup and Ghatkopar - will be enhanced.

    There will be a new marine outfall at Erangal; it will be 3.4 km long
and 3.5 m in diameter. Versova and Malad will have effluent pumping
stations.

14 existing pumping stations will be expanded, replaced or refurbished.

1 new pumping station will be constructed.

15 km of sewer lines will be expanded.

25 km of man-entry sewer lines will be rehabilitated.

THE PRESENT

    BMC has 7 treatment plants now at Colaba, Love Grove, Bandra, Versova,
Malad, Bhandup and Ghatkopar; but the one at Malad is a very primitive plant
as it can remove only flotsam and grit right now.

    Of the 6 full-fledged treatment plants the BMC has, 3 (at Colaba, Love
Grove and Bandra) have marine outfalls; the sewage is treated and is
discharged 3.5 kilometres far from the coast.

    The other 3 full-fledged plants at Versova, Bhandup and Ghatkopar have
man-made lagoons; these lagoons are huge holding ponds where the sewage is
accommodated for 120 hours and atmospheric oxygen is dissolved into the
sewage with the help of aerators to improve their environmental quality so
that they do not harm the ecological system.

    Both marine outfalls and lagoons have already made a huge difference to
the quality of the water close to the coast.

THE DEADLINE

2012

THE COST

Rs 1896 crore The capacity of each plant is 2.5 times more so that it can
handle the extra flow during monsoon.

The sewage generated in 2025 is likely to be 3400 million litres daily.

The projected population for 2025 is 16 million.



Publication:Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Aug 15, 2007; Section:Times City;
Page Number:6

URL :
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