Sewage treatment: ‘Unfeasible’ project in cold storage

Proposal premised on NIBGE report

LAHORE:

Despite the December orders of Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding the establishment of a sewage treatment plant to clean up River Ravi, the initiative appears to have been placed on the backburner.

River Ravi Commission member Rafay Alam told The Express Tribune that the body had formulated a proposal regarding cleaning up a segment of the river by establishing a small bioremediation plant. The proposal, he said, was premised on a National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) report. Alam said the facility would clean 10 cusecs and be spread out on 50 acres. He said the commission had comprehensively looked into the project during meetings with the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) over subsequent meetings following the LHC hearing. Alam said it was over these that the agency had expressed its willingness to fund the Rs30 million project.

“This will be Lahore’s first river-water treatment plant. It will be completely indigenous,” he said. Alam said the project was being funded by the government and the technical experts working on it were citizens. While 10 cusecs did not come across as a great quantity in context of the amount of waste dumped in the river daily, he said, the project represented a small step forward nonetheless.

Wasa MD Nasir Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the project was not feasible. He said such small interventions would not bring about any change. Ahmed said such plants were used the world over to treat storm and not waste water. He said a much larger intervention was needed to clean River Ravi.

The Wasa MD said the agency had approved the project and sanctioned funds for it despite its reservations. “The company tasked with submitting a technical proposal for the project has not done so,” he said. Ahmed said the Wasa would place an advertisement based on requirements provided to it by the NIBGE. He said the project would then be awarded to the lowest bidder.

River Ravi Commission chairman Kausar Malik said he was not entirely sure as to why the report was yet to be submitted to the agency. “I have received a copy of the technical report and will have to check why it hasn’t been submitted to the WASA as yet,” he said.  The River Ravi case was last heard on January 29, 2016. The hearing was adjourned for two months with the court ordering the submission of a progress report on the construction of the plant.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.