KOCHI: Kerala High Court has constituted a high-level committee to study the issues related to installation of sewage treatment plants in apartment complexes along the Thevara-Perandoor Canal.
In a hearing on Friday, the court reviewed a Public Interest Litigation filed by apartment owners, highlighting issues with old apartments, apartments with space constraints and concerns of residents who were served notices by the Pollution Control Board asking them to install sewage treatment plants on their premises.
The residents, however, sought installation of a centralised STP system in the city, in the model of other metro cities, instead of the complicated process of building and maintaining individual STPs in all apartments.
The High Court has asked the committee comprising the LSG department principal secretary, State Pollution Control Board chairperson, KWA MD and secretary of Kochi Corporation, to study the issues raised in the PIL as well as in the suo motu cases, and to submit a report to the court within four weeks on the long-term solutions needed to end the sewage issue.
Earlier, the PCB had issued notices to 71 apartments along the TP Canal, for failing to install sewage treatment plants for preventing pollution of the canal. The PCB notices were followed by a notice from KSEB warning the residents to cut off electricity if they failed to follow the PCB rules within a week. Later some apartment owners obtained a stay from the High Court, and some others got more time to comply with the order.