HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) will take up the performance evaluation and annual audit of private sewerage treatment plants up to Outer Ring Road (ORR) from August 1. It will take the help of the Environmental Enforcement Cell (EEC), a wing of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD), to evaluate the 680 to 690 private STPs established in gated communities and commercial complexes within the ORR limits.
The auditing of private STPs is being taken as per the directions of the State Government. The government will collect Rs 5,000 per STP as user charges from the consumers to meet the expenses of the exercise. HMWS&SB officials told Express that consumers who have private STPs in their premises should register on https://eec.telangana.gov.in and pay the Rs 5,000 to the HMWS&SB team that visits their premises to evaluate the STPs.
Failure to pay the user charges would entail revocation of the 20 KL free water supply and also disconnection of water connections. Consumers or the owners of private STPs have been told to cooperate with EEC and HMWS&SB officials during the visit.
The evaluation is being taken up as many of the private STPs are currently dysfunctional due to lack of maintenance. Besides there is no proper monitoring of the STPs at regular intervals. Many of the gated communities and commercial complexes whose STPs are not operational due to high cost involved in the repairs are releasing the untreated water from their premises directly into the nalas and stormwater drains.
Some owners have not constructed the STPs even after obtaining Occupancy Certificate (OC) from relevant authorities.
Some of the private STPs are functional but the treated water is not being used by them for non domestic purposes like gardening, floor cleaning, flushing, cooling towers etc. In some gated communities that installed 500 kilo litres per day (KLD) plant, only 300 KLD is treated.