CAG pulls up LAWDA on STPs around Kashmir's Dal Lake

Srinagar, May 18 (UNI) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has pulled up the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) for going ahead with the construction of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) around the periphery of the famous Dal Lake in Kashmir despite the central government's serious reservations about these.

In a report, the CAG said the Dal Lake has been used as a receptacle for large quantities of waste water and untreated human wastes from the peripheral areas through a number of drains that enter into it. With a view to arresting the inflow of waste water and sewage into the Dal Lake, LAWDA proposed the installationof six STPs at different spots around its periphery, it added.

However, the report said the Union Urban Development Ministry expressed doubt over the effectiveness of the STPs during cold weather conditions and the sustainability of huge maintenance costs.

Audit scrutiny also revealed that the project report did not include a plan for connecting houses to treatment plants.

Despite concerns expressed by the Union Ministry, LAWDA in August 2004 allotted the construction of three STPs at Hazratbal, Laam (Nishat) and Habak to a private firm at a cost of Rs 8.90 crore with the scheduled date of completion as May 2005.

Out of the three STPs, the ones at Hazratbal and Habak had been commissioned during February and April 2006, the report said. In October 2006, LAWDA claimed that the STPs were working efficiently and that the Dal Lake's health would improve after all the STPs were completed and commissioned.

However, according to an analytical report of the research and monitoring division of LAWDA in August 2006, concentration of some of the nutrients present in the waste water increased at the outflow stage vis-a-vis inflow stage despite receiving treatment at STPs.

The percentage efficiency of the two STPs ranged between 63.39 and (-) 366.3. Also, the STPs did not match the prescribed norms, particularly with regard to inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, the report said.

According to the report, measures were required to be taken for effective treatment of sewage to prevent detrimental impact on the lake ecology as entry of raw sewage was one of the major causes of its enhanced eutrophy.

LAWDA's contention in October 2006 that the STPs were working efficiently was, therefore, not acceptable, the CAG said.

UNI