Dangerous levels of sewage flowing into Gomti

LUCKNOW: Gomti which supplies around 300 MLD of raw water to Aishbagh and about 120 MLD to Balaganj waterworks daily fulfilling water needs of more than half of Lucknow's population is polluted to a dangerous extent by continuous sewage discharge.
On recommendations of Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh, who wrote to Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti last month to send a team of technical experts to review sewage outflow condition in Gomti, the ministry recently sent a team from WAPCOS (Water and Power Consultancy Services) to assess the pollution level in the river.
Despite installation of sewage pumping stations at all major nullahs falling in the river and their regular interception and diversions, it was unfortunate to find that much of the sewage is flowing into the river untreated because of old pipelines, various leakages, inefficient pumps and lack of supervision. The team gave negative reviews to the working of pumping stations and has sent photographs to its head office in Delhi.
A senior official in WAPCOS said "an expert team will soon visit the city to analyse the problem and send its recommendations to the Ministry of Water Resources within a week." WAPCOS is a premier consultancy organisation and PSU under Water Resources Ministry.
Around 26 nullahs terminate in Gomti and about 25 sewage pumping stations have been deployed on them to divert untreated sewage to the two treatment plants of city. This discharge when treated at the plants is redirected to the river. Presently, there are two treatment plants at Daulatganj (56 MLD capacity) and Bharwara (345 MLD capacity).
Experts claim both these plants are working in full capacity, yet there is excess sewage being produced in city which the obsolete pumping stations are unable to draw for treatment, hence they flow directly into the river. Moreover, due to rapid geographical expansion of the city mainly on Sultanpur Road, Kanpur Road, Sitapur Road, etc and a high level of migration over last few years, sewage disposal in the newly developed areas have not been able to be directed via pumping stations.
WAPCOS says, "Sewage from most of these areas is flowing directly into the river as their outflow is not guarded through pumping stations. Approximately, about 150 MLD of sewage is being produced daily in the city in excess from these areas which is directly being discharged into the river, which is harmful."
The agency says reason behind sewage outflow in the river is old and worn out pipelines which are unable to pump the entire sewage, inefficient and obsolete pumps and poor cleanliness of drains. An official said "we found heavy silts of pollutants have started depositing in the river bed which is harmful for raw water supply to the city"
On inspection, the team found that many pumps were not working in full capacity while others were defunct. An official said "at Kukrail pumping station, only half the pumps were found working during the inspection while in Wazirganj, all pumps were non-functional." WAPCOS also cautioned that after first rains, the level of pollution in river has increased many times due to weak flow of water.
Usually, when water flow is thick, it dilutes the sludge discharge during monsoons but over last few years, Gomti water has dried significantly, thereby increasing its impurity level. Rajnath Singh has also requested the Ministry to make arrangements for cleaning aquifers (water-bodies) in Pilibhit which are responsible to recharge the water level into the river. It is believed that once those water bodies supplying water to Gomti are de-silted and cleaned up, water flow would augment in the river.