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Operate sewage treatment plants or face water supply disconnection, PCMC warns 41 housing societies

A survey of over 300 housing societies had shown that the sewage treatment plant was shut in 41 of them. The water shortage in Pimpri-Chinchwad makes it all the more important for societies to recycle water, officials said.

2 min read
Pune water problemThe civic body said it is mandatory for societies that have come up on land measuring over 10,000 sq m to set up plants to treat the drainage water in their respective societies and recycle it for various purposes (Representational/File Photo)

The environment department of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has warned 41 large housing societies of water supply disconnection unless they operationalise their sewage treatment plants and reuse the treated water.

“The sewage treatment plants in 41 large housing societies have been shut for a long time. We have issued notices to them to restart the plants with immediate effect. Else, we will disconnect their water supply after December 11,” said PCMC joint city engineer Sanjay Kulkarni, who heads the environment department.

The PCMC administration said it had conducted a survey of over 300 housing societies and found that the sewage treatment plant was shut in 41 of them. “The plants are in operation in most societies but remained closed in 47. After we issued notices twice, six societies began operations at their plants,” an official said.

The civic body said it is mandatory for societies that have come up on land measuring over 10,000 sq m to set up plants to treat the drainage water in their respective societies and recycle it for various purposes. ”The rule has been mandatory as per the directives of the environment department of the state and central governments,” an official added.

Civic officials said the water shortage faced by the city makes it all the more important for cooperative housing societies to recycle and reuse water. “There is a water shortage now. The city is getting an alternate-day water supply. In the future too, the city will face problems. To tide over the issue, the state and central governments made it mandatory for societies to set up water treatment plants and reuse the treated water in toilets, for washing purposes and gardening,” an official said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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