MPCB officials find abattoir in a real mess,serve a show-cause notice….Sharad Vyas
Mumbai: A day after TOI reported on how millions of litres of untreated waste was flowing out of the BMCs Deonar abattoir directly into the citys sewer network,a team from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) on Thursday visited the slaughterhouse and served a show-cause notice for violation of water pollution norms.The MPCB has asked the management to explain reasons for non-compliance with the pollution guidelines.
The team found glaring violations in the management of the internal effluent treatment plant,which on Wednesday was turned off for over two hours because it was overburdened and started overflowing.The team also found that untreated waste was haphazardly let into an adjoining stormwater drain,there were leakages in the motor-enabled pumps,and the entire premises was kept in filthy conditions in violation of the housekeeping norms,officials said.
The abattoirs effluent treatment plant (ETP) is in urgent need of an upgrade and despite repeated warnings,the management has not had the time to undertake any measures.We have now given them time to respond to our notice or action will be taken against them very soon, said a team member of the MPCB.
The abattoirs treatment plant is turned on for nearly three hours a day and about 1.3 million litres of waste treated with the help of two submersible pumps inside the wet well where waste water accumulates.Pumps inside the dry well are rarely used.But burdened with the rise in slaughter due to the Eid festivities,the plant was forced to shut down on Wednesday.
In a bid to avoid a complete crash of the plant,the management decided to cancel operations for over two hours and waste was let into a nine-inch sewer connected to an 18-inch main line outside the Deonar police station.In their defence,the BMC officials had claimed there is no way but to carry on with the arrangement for another two days of Eid.But on Thursday,during the MPCB visit,the plant was kept in working condition,officials said.