KTR’s sewage treatment plan aids HMWSSB’s water supply

Hyderabad: A blueprint envisioned during the previous BRS government by the then MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao to make Hyderabad India’s first city to achieve 100 per cent sewage treatment has now come as a boon to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) in generating bulk treated water across the Core Urban Region Economy (CURE) area.

Though Rama Rao had then proposed 31 sewage treatment plants (STPs) with a combined capacity of 1,259.50 million litres per day, the water board built 20 plants with a capacity of 1,106 MLD due to the unavailability of land. A senior HMWSSB official told Telangana Today that 20 STPs had been completed and were generating treated water.

HMWSSB Chief General Manager G Sujatha said a total of 1,872 MLD of sewage water was being treated and arrangements were being made to supply the treated water through the Green Water Tankers facility. The water will be supplied for construction, landscaping, industrial cooling, manufacturing, data centres and government agencies.

Of the 1,873 MLD of treated water, 1,520 MLD had been kept ready for supply to consumers in need from November 1. HMWSSB currently supplies treated water at Rs 25 per kilolitre, but there was no clarity on whether it should be supplied at the same price or free of cost, the CGM said.

39 new STPs in ORR area

The State government has proposed 39 STPs with a combined capacity of 972 million litres per day, according to a senior HMWSSB official. Of the first 16 STPs, 14 have been taken up, including two cascaded plants.

Work was under way on 13, while one was involved in a court case. Of another 22 STPs, 14 have been taken up, including eight flow-cascaded plants. Work was under way on 10, while four faced court cases. A 7-MLD STP is being developed in public-private partnership mode.