HYDERABAD: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) to conduct a ‘hygiene survey’ of the Musi river. The order comes in response to a petition filed by two law students from the city, Mohammed Nayeem Pasha and Syed Aftab Ghori, calling attention to the contamination of Musi river with untreated sewage.
As per NGT’s directions, Prof Suman Kapur of BITS Pilani - Hyderabad should be involved in the survey and the CPCB would have to pay for the survey from its environment compensation fund. The report is to be submitted to the NGT by July 31 this year. The CPCB and TSPCB would have to take up a similar survey at other polluted river stretches in the State as well. The CPCB has also been asked to submit a report on the operational status of the Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) functioning in and around the Musi river.
The hygiene survey will be based on the fecal coliform count in the river. Fecal coliform are a group of bacteria present in human feces and their presence in a river is indicative of its contamination with untreated sewage.
Further, NGT also directed the CPCB to conduct a similar hygiene survey in all polluted river stretches across the country and submit a report. The CPCB also has to prepare a mechanism for the classification of such river stretches across the country within two weeks, based on two criteria - Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and fecal coliform.
This is based on an earlier judgement by the NGT made last December, wherein it had said that BOD shall not be the sole criteria for the identification and classification of polluted river stretches. The CPCB had published a report earlier in September, identifying 351 polluted river stretches across the country, including eight in Telangana. However, this was based on only BOD as a parameter.NGT issued these directions during a hearing conducted on April 5. The next hearing will be held on July 1.