Hyderabad to have 31 STPs for 100 percent sewage treatment by next year: KTR
Delivering the keynote address at `Replant Initiative’ by Times of India, the Minister said these STPs would handle the secondary treatment.
Hyderabad: Come April, Hyderabad will be the first city to treat 100 per cent of sewage generated in the city as 31 sewerage treatment plants are nearing completion. These are being taken up with an outlay of Rs.3,866 crore and will have a capacity of 1,258 MLD, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao said here on Tuesday.
Delivering the keynote address at the `Replanet Initiative’ organized by Times of India, the Minister said these STPs would do secondary treatment of sewage. The State government will mandate the use of such treated water in construction, landscaping, horticulture and cooling the furnaces of thermal plants among others.
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He said the State was working on a three-pronged strategy that involves treatment of sewage, effective management of run-off water and solid waste management to promote sustainable practices and a circular economy. Urban areas had turned investment magnets and as a result were seeing large scale migration from the rural areas. As a result, the urban infrastructure had to be strengthened on a regular basis to ensure that it did not crumble due to high population density. Hyderabad was being ranked as the number one city in India in the liveability index for several years in a row. However, the State government would not rest on the past laurels and would continue to work to make it part of the top 25 global cities. Currently, Hyderabad was ranked 140 in the world, he said.
Telangana was one of the more urban States as about 46.8 percent of the population lives in the city. The national urban average was about 31 percent. The State is spread over 1.12 lakh sq km and of that Hyderabad accounts for about 670 sq km. Other urban cities take this to about 2,000 sq km. Hyderabad and surrounding locations account for more than 45 percent of the GSDP, he said.
At the same time, global warming and climate changes were at the doorstep and as a result there were untimely rains, cloud bursts, late monsoons, high temperatures and others, he said. In Hyderabad, the State government had taken up hydrological mapping as part of its efforts to save water resources. It was also implementing the Strategic Nala Development Programme for addressing the bottlenecks in nalas with about Rs 1,000 crore initially. A few projects have already taken off under this. Hyderabad was now generating about 6,000 tonne waste per day, up from 3,500 tonne per day in 2015. It is processing the construction, liquid, biological and e-waste separately.
The State had already set up a 20 MW municipal waste-to-energy facility at Jawahar Nagar. Another 28 MW was being added while there were also plans for a further addition of another 20 MW. The dry waste would be used for power generation while the wet waste would be converted into manure, Rama Rao said.
The Government had also set up fecal sludge treatment plants in 68 municipalities and similar facilities would be extended to all 142 municipalities next year. With the State successfully restoring several step wells with participation from the NGOs and public, heritage structure restoration had now turned into a public movement. There were 218 heritage structures in the city and efforts would be made to restore each of these. This would aid in Hyderabad emerging as a right candidate for the World Heritage City tag, the Minister said.
