Untreated sewage water from SCB Medical College and Hospital being discharged into the Taladanda canal in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, May 11: Orissa High Court has expressed displeasure with Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the public health engineering department (PHED) for doing nothing to stop direct discharge of untreated sewage and waste water into the Taladanda canal.

The discharge is taking place at five locations in Cuttack, including one near SCB Medical College and Hospital.

The court was concerned as Taladanda, an irrigation channel, that starts at Jobra and links the Mahanadi river with the Bay of Bengal at Paradip, was being contaminated.

The court had been issuing orders to stop the discharge of untreated sewage into the canal since January while adjudicating public interest litigations related to civic problems in Cuttack.

The division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S.C. Parija was annoyed because the authorities filed no compliance report when the matter came up for hearing on Friday. The authorities had also failed to make the sewage treatment plant functional. Consequently, domestic wastewater is not being treated before being discharged into Kathajodi river.

The state counsel told the court that a meeting of the co-ordination committee with the advocate-general as convenor had already been held for implementation of the court order.

The bench rejected the submissions of the state counsel and directed for presentation of compliance report when it is scheduled to take up public interest litigations related to civic problems in the city on May 13.

Earlier, the high court had asked the pollution control board to assess the water quality of Taladanda canal and check whether the pollution level in it was higher than prescribed limit.

In its report, the board said the analysis of water samples had revealed that parameters such as total coliform bacteria (TCB) were beyond prescribed standard.

“The domestic waste water generated from households, commercial places, offices and health care units situated adjacent to SCB Medical College Hospital are collected in storm water drains and finally discharged to Taladanda canal without treatment,” the report said.

While indicating the discharge of domestic effluent/sewage at five more locations, the pollution control board said: “Under no circumstances should there be any discharge of sewage/waste water to Taladanda canal.” The five locations are near Chatra Bazar, Andarpur, Kantila, Rajahansa and Biribati and Bidyadharpur.

In his report, regional officer of the pollution control board in Cuttack Santosh Kumar Panda said it was found that a “substantial quantity of untreated wastewater generated from SCB hospital was being discharged into the Taladanda canal”.

“The storm water drain and sewer system needs to be segregated in order to prevent contamination of the Taladanda canal water by domestic effluents and sewage,” the report said.

Though there was an effluent treatment plant on the SCB hospital premises, untreated sewage was being discharged into the canal because one of the three sewage pumping stations was not functioning. While two of the pumping stations were under public health engineering department, the other is under the municipal corporation.

The court had directed the CMC to immediately hand over the pumping station under it to PHED to make it functional.