New sewage treatment facility at Rourkela Steel Plant likely to be ready by May 2025
ROURKELA: The industrial township of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) is all set to get a new sewage treatment facility by May this year.
The construction of the facility, which aims to curb pollution of Koel river water, is underway in full swing at a total project cost of around Rs 96.63 crore. The new unit will comprise a waste water treatment plant at Sector-14 with capacity of 30 million litre per day (MLD) to cover all households and other establishments of Rourkela industrial township.
Reliable sources said the administration is emphasizing expeditious completion and stabilisation of the project. The facility is expected to be made operational by May.
The new facility involving the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) technology for treatment of sewage water, would fully replace the old treatment system. Currently, sewage water generated in the industrial township flows to three oxidation ponds at Sector-14 and one at Sector 22 for natural treatment through photochemical reaction in presence of aerobic and facultative bacteria.
The naturally treated waste water is finally released to Koel river at Sector-14 and Brahmani river at Sector-22 with Koel meeting Brahmani at Vedvyas to flow southward.
The sources said RSP has long-term plan to reuse the waste water treated at the new facility for steel making. The RSP envisages expansion of its steel production capacity to 9.30 million tonne per annum (MTPA) from 4.5 MTPA in near future. Till the expansion happens, the treated waste water would be released into Koel river.
Incidentally, the industrial township already has about 450 km of major and minor functional sewerage lines connected to all quarters and establishments. The upcoming facility is expected to be more reliable in treating sewage water generated from the RSP township than the present practice of treating waste water naturally in oxidation ponds.
In December 2023, a major diarrhoea outbreak had claimed nearly 16 lives and around 1,800 people were taken ill reportedly due to contaminated water sourced from Brahmani river.