Hyderabad: Despite several attempts by various governments, the river Musi, which cuts across Hyderabad, continues to be one of the most polluted rivers in the country.
The river, which once upon had clean water, receives nearly 645 million litres per day of sewage water. According to a study, the Musi is the eighth most polluted river.
The Musi, which is a tributary of the river Krishna, is sarcastically referred to as the city’s sewage drain because most of 1,300 million litres day sew-age generated by Hyderabad ends up there. However, it seems they did not get to see the high levels of pollution in Musi river which cuts through Hyderabad and in Hussainsagar.
As per data obtained from Telangana State Pollution Control Board, main indicators of water quality — the values of biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and total dissolved solids — have not changed for the Musi since 2007 and in some cases have increased drastically.
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The pollution board monitors water quality at nine points along the Musi river.
High TDS indicates the presence of sewage water and untreated industrial effluents in the water.
While the BOD figures have doubled, COD has more than tripled. The value of total coliforms is almost the same. The only relief is that compared to figures from 2011-14, only the BOD value has decreased.
An official from TSPCB said, “Mixing of sewage is a major issue. It should be controlled to improve the water quality. Industrial effluents are also a problem but they just form a small percentage of the pollutants, which get mixed directly into Musi. people should would towards this the individually if they want to restore the Musi to the old glory.”
