5-mld sewage treatment plant inaugurated in Tirupati

Tirupati: The newly erected 5-mld sewage treatment plant (STP) at Vinayak Sagar on Karakambadi road in Tirupati was inaugurated on Wednesday. Tirupati city MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy along with mayor R Sireesha and municipal commissioner Anupama Anjali were present.

The city MLA said the MCT has constructed an eco-friendly STP at Vinayak Sagar at a cost of ₹14 crore with a capacity to treat 5 million litres of sewage water per day, using the new Phytorid wastewater treatment technology. This was the biggest in the country after the 3mld natural STP in Delhi, he said.

The MLA said the sewage water generated from the households on the Karakambadi road and neighbouring areas were let into Vinayak Sagar in the past, leading to groundwater pollution. Now, with the construction of STP, the sewage water would be treated and filled in the lake, while the excess water would be supplied to farmers free of cost.

Mayor Sireesha said the Ganesh idol immersion during Vinayaka Chavithi festival used to be done in wastewater in the Vinayak Sagar tank. With the inauguration of the STP now, the idols’ immersion could be done in the freshwater.

The recycling and reuse of treated wastewater is a suggested alternative to bridge the gap between water demand and supply as also to reduce pressure on water resources, she said.

According to officials, almost 80 per cent of the water supplied to a household is being discharged as wastewater and this polluted the groundwater. In Tirupati, only 30-40 per cent of the sewage is being recycled. Though the MCT worked on a 25mld conventional STP, a problem was that it needed a large infrastructure network and involved a high cost.

Instead of relying on such STPs, the MCT erected the non-conventional STP, which can treat wastewater in a natural way with less maintenance cost, officials claimed.