‘Step taken to remove odour, reduce coliform in sewage treatment plants fruitful’

The state Environment department has made significant strides in removal of odour and reduction in faecal coliform through application of microbial consortia in sewage treatment plants and septic tanks. The recommendation for the use of this microbial consortium was made by IISER Kalyani .

“We have fire fighting reservoir at the office of West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB). We have charged the microbial consortium in it on December 8, 2022, when the total faecal coliform bacteria count was over 9 lakh. On January 11, 2023 it came down to 2400 and on March 16 it has further come down to 1400. It has worked like magic and now we are taking this to the septic tank and the inlet and outlet of the sewage treatment plants (STPs) and there also the results have been extremely encouraging,”Manas Bhunia, State Environment minister said. Kalyan Rudra, Chairman of WBPCB said that the BOD level as well as the dissolved oxygen level in Ganga has witnessed significant improvement in the recent past, but all efforts in addressing the issue of coliform bacteria for nearly four decades have proved futile. “We are hopeful that charging of this microbial consortium in the inlet and outlet of the STPs that are connected with the Ganga will eradicate coliform bacteria to a good extent,” Rudra said.

However, the State PCB will continue more experiments with this consortia in legacy dumpsites to reduce odour and methane formation that often results in fire in such dumpsites.“We will submit a report regarding the success achieved in addressing faecal coliform to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and if she gives us the necessary nod, we will use this in various projects of the state Panchayats and Rural Development department and Municipal Affairs department,” Bhunia added.

The minister announced that the State PCB will soon use drones for collecting real time data of industrial pollution.