Law to make STPs must for industries

The state government might soon enact a new legislation to make it mandatory for industries to establish Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) to treat the sewage generated by them and to reuse the treated water. 

Speaking to Express, Water Resources Minister M B Patil said: “We have already initiated the process to enact the legislation. We are working on various modalities to bring in different forms of industries under the new rule.”

He said that the state government  should be in a position to draft the legislation after conducting the necessary study within the next three months.

Patil said that the industries will not set up STPs to treat their own sewage unless a legislation is enacted in this regard. By making it mandatory for the industries to use their own sewage we can also reduce pollution levels caused by them, the Minister added.

“Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) is not only minimising the pollution levels, but also conserving a lot of water by setting up its own STP. We will might also come up with measures to encourage industries to emulate BIAL”, Patil said.

Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industries past president D Muralidhar welcomed the move and said: “Most of the advanced countries have already made it mandatory for their industries to treat their own sewage. However, we have many small scale industries that might not be in a position to afford a STP. Therefore, the government should make provisions to establish a common STP for a group of small scale industries and ask them to maintain it besides ensuring that they channelise their sewage to the STP.”

Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association President A Vijayendranath said that it was a good move to enact a legislation.

“But the government should be judicious in framing the rules. They should keep in mind that most of the small scale industries are non polluting and cannot afford their own STPs,” he added. According to the information obtained from the KSPCB there are over 54,000 industries in the state.

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