Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
also be one of the key elements of all the Smart City initiatives. Private
participation in sewage treatment can be invited so as to use the output
as a product of commercial value. To finance this initiative, a sewage
treatment tax can be considered. This will contribute to the financial
viability of the enterprise.
The mix of centralized and decentralized STPs can be decided based
on the city planning. The Town & Country Planning Department in
various states have progressively mandated the requirement of STPs for
residential areas, to be set up and maintained by them. All States should
consider a regulation that mandates STPs in all new housing/apartment
complexes with more than 50 dwellings. Similar regulation can be
mandated for any new commercial infrastructure as well.
• Data from CPCB in 2009 shows that only 60% of industrial waste
water, mostly from large-scale industries, was treated. Many
industries directly release untreated effluents into the city sewage
system or into rivers and other water bodies (refer Annexure 1).
Urgent interventions are needed to penalize the industries that let
out effluents that do not follow the standards set up by CPCB.
• The textiles (wet processing), molasses-based distilleries, pulp-andpaper
industries and tanneries are among the most water-polluting.
In March 2015 the CPCB issued notifications to 9 SPCBs of states
along the Ganga basin, following which notices were sent to factories
asking them to submit action plans for achieving Zero Liquid
Discharge (ZLD) or face severe penalties (including shutdown). In
2008, the Tamil Nadu Government had mandated ZLD for all textile
wet processing units in Tirupur. As ZLD involves high capital and
operating costs, the Union and State Governments had provided
grants of more than 50% towards capital expenditure. 7 Industries
utilizing river water should be mandated to adopt a Zero Liquid
Discharge model with assistance from the Government. This will
prevent extra withdrawal of surface water or groundwater.
• Non-point source pollution from agricultural runoff has largely
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