Delhi to upgrade sewage treatment plants for cleaner environment

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will upgrade 20 sewage treatment plants (STPs) and sludge biogas plants in order to clean the environment and produce biogas as much as possible so that it can be used to make clean fuels like bio-CNG and produce electricity.

This decision was taken by Satyendar Jain, Delhi's Water Minister and Delhi Jal Board Chairman, who convened a meeting with senior officials on Wednesday.

The meeting focused on upgrading all STPs and sludge biogas plants of the Delhi Jal Board.

"This move will drastically reduce organic waste. It will be a huge step in making Delhi clean, green and sustainable," Jain tweeted post the meeting.

As per a Delhi government statement, officials have been instructed to upgrade all STPs within a time span of 12-15 months using the latest state-of-the-art technology unlike conventional technology which takes four to five years to complete the up-gradation process.

"Biogas plants, which treat sludge and produce biogas, will also be upgraded to handle all multiple types of solid waste such as sludge from STP, septage from septic tank, cow dung from dairies and municipal solid waste especially from mandis and nearby societies or colonies. Right now they only treat sludge coming from sewage," the statement added.

At present, DJB has biogas plants to handle around 400 tonne per day capacity, out of which 240 million gallons per day (MGD) is functional.

"Officials have been instructed to make the complete capacity functional within a year," it claimed.

Apart from this, DJB will introduce a new tarrif to supply treated water from STPs so that less groundwater is utilised. For this, Rs 5000 per acre per month would be charged from the beneficiaries apart from one time fixed cost of Rs 10,000 per acre that will be paid as an infrastructure charge.

"It is the responsibility of MCD to handle these waste types but DJB will lead this initiative to clean waste in order to reduce the burden on existing landfill sites and a very important step to clean Delhi," Jain added. -IANS