‘Action plan against river pollution in next 2 mths’

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has stated that it is going to come up with an action plan on curbing the pollution in river stretches of Maharashtra. The recent Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report has confirmed that the polluted stretches of rivers have increased in Maharashtra from 49 to 53.

Officials stated that more focus would be given on the priority-1 river stretches, which have Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) level-amount of dissolved oxygen needed for the aquatic life, more than 30 mg/l. The Asian Age on Monday had reported that the priority-1 rivers in state have increased from four in 2009-12 to nine in 2016-17, according to a 2015 report,

“We are already in the process of making an action plan to improve the condition of polluted river stretches. In the last three years, we have definitely worked to decrease the pollution in the rivers and now the BOD level of 15 river stretches is less than 3mg/l. The action plan will be released within two months,” said a senior official from the MPCB.  

The MPCB has entrusted NEERI with the task of preparation of the draft action plan for mitigating the river pollution, which will be focusing on regular assessment of common treatment effluent plants for industries and sewage treatment plants against household sewage pollution among others.