NGT forms committee to look into plea against setting up of STP in Gandhinagar

The National Green Tribunal has formed a committee to look into a plea seeking to restrain Gujarat Urban Development from setting up a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) on the plot located in village Jaspur, Gandhi Nagar district.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel constituted a committee comprising officials from the state pollution control board (SPCB)and the Collector, Gandhi Nagar to look into the grievance of the applicant.

The NGT directed the committee to visit the site, interact with the stakeholders and look into the impact of the proposed STP on the environment and public health.

The Committee may also look into the grievance against deficient functioning of the existing STP, resulting in pollution and threat to public health, and take remedial measures, it said.

The tribunal said that if the STP is to be allowed at the current location, all due precautions must be ensured, which may be continuously monitored by the SPCB.

“The proposed STP needs to be compliant on odor control arrangements, maintaining buffer with dense Foliage plantation barrier, utilize treated sewage for industrial and other bulk users like Power Plants,” the bench said.

The tribunal said that while it is true that STP requires consent under the Water Act and can be a source of pollution if STP is compliant with the environmental norms and all due precautions are taken, there is no legal bar to STP being set up.

In fact, in absence of STP untreated sewage can cause water and other pollution, it said.

If any grievance survives, it will be open to the aggrieved parties to take their remedies following the law, the tribunal said.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Waterlily Co-op Housing Service Residential Society Limited seeking to restrain Gujarat Urban Development and its contractor Girdhari Lal Construction from setting up the STP in village Jaspur, Taluka Kalol.

The plea stated that the plant was being set up for Gandhi Nagar District, without mandatory consent of the SPCB under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 (Water Act).

The plant is adjacent to the applicant Society where 3,000 families are living and is thus against siting criteria for the highly polluted industries laid down by the Gujarat State PCB, the plea said.

The applicant made representation to the Collector with a copy to the PCB to the effect that setting up of centralized STP will be a health hazard and harm the environment but it has not been considered.

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