Individual homes too pollute Bellandur lake, KSPCB to check them

Board says apartments are not major polluters, their culpability hyped

After factories and apartment complexes, individual homes are now under the scanner for polluting Bengaluru's largest waterbody, the 910-acre Bellandur Lake.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) plans to check whether the scores of individual homes located around the lake and in its catchment areas also pollute the waterbody. The board will verify whether these homes are letting untreated water into the lake by not installing sewage treatment plants (STPs).

The board has already served notices on 300 apartment complexes for not installing STPs.

G V Ranga Rao, member secretary, KSPCB, stressed apartments and commercial establishments are not the only polluters. There are many individual homes around the lake which have never been checked but they also pollute the waterbody. They need to be checked, he added.

The KSPCB plans to survey individual homes and check how their waste water is managed. It wants to partner with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) whose rules stipulate mandatory installation of STPs.

According to Rao, there are around 755 apartment complexes around Bellandur lake, with each having around 100 flats. This means there would be over 70,000 flats around the lake. On average, five people live in each home, which means around 3.5 lakh people resident around the lake. But they generate just one percent of the sewage that goes into the waterbody.

"Everyone thinks that apartments are the major culprit. But there are many individual homes that do not have STPs. We didn't check them as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) didn't ask us to do so. But we will check them soon," he said.

To put things into perspective, of the 408 Million Litres per Day (MLD) of water entering Bellandur Lake every day, just 13 MLD comes from apartment complexes. "Notices have been issued to apartment complexes to set up STPs. Even if they set up a 40-50 MLD sewage plant, that will be sufficient. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the BWSSB have also been directed to look into the waste management. The KSPCB, which is a regulatory authority, will help in all ways to treat 160 MLD of sewage,” Rao said.