Friday, March 4, 2016

Asks - from the people of Yamalur Watershed

There are several issues with water management in the Yamalur watershed. Here is a consolidated list of asks from the people. Below are cut-pastes from emails


Note that these are not motherhood statements ("The government should do...."), but proposals to jointly drive the agenda, with active participation from businesses, NGOs, and activists.

That will be clear only when we develop these themes....

    1. Ensure that sewage is treated properly in private STPs:
      1. Tighten KSPCB CFE-CFO process for STP-approval;
      2. Start a formal process for STP handover to RWAs
      3. Survey all existing private STPs, and get them working.
    2. Ensure that sewage is treated properly at BWSSB plants
      1. Set up public watch committees that will carry out periodic inspection of BWSSB STPs
    3. Ensure that the rainwater, treated sewage and raw sewage are routed correctly
      1. Separate pipeline for sewage (do not use SWDs for sewage)
      2. Set up public watch teams to monitor solid waste dumped in road-side drains.
      3. Set up public watch teams to monitor sewage in Raj Kaluves and identify sources.
    4. Identify the sources of pollution that are hidden in the city (e.g. lead from batteries, heavy metals from plating shops, etc.).
      1. Conduct a city-wide GIS-survey to spot all polluting activities
      2. Find mitigation plan
      3. Implement it with area-wise citizen participation.
    5. Set a deadline to prepare plans to recycle the sewage to fulfill the water shortfall in the city.
    6. Share the Lakes Quality Data that is collected by the KSPCB - on an ongoing basis. Frequency of sample collection can be quarterly. Currently this process is is not made public or transparent
    7. Work with citizens to ensure that excess treated waste water( of appropriate quality) from  apartments/layouts is discharged into lakes or recharge wells responsibly. This will require the setting up of a close monitoring system. This will also require that the KSPCB openly acknowledge that the zero discharge policy is largely unworkable as long as apartments are only using the treated waste water for flushing and landscaping

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