Bhanu Bhakta Acharya

Hetauda, February 9

The water treatment plant, established for Rs 500 million and constructed in Hetauda Industrial Zone (HIZ), is facing operational difficulties because of the dearth of the minimum amount of polluted water. The plant has a capacity of treating 1.1 million litres of polluted water per day and is not even receiving 0.5 million litres of water right now.

Bimal Ghimire, manager of HIZ, said that if the capacity of the plant were to be increased in future, it could even treat about 18 million litres of polluted water. However, all the industries put together in the zone seldom produce more than 0.5 million litres of wastewater daily, thus creating a difficulty for even running the plant properly.

The plant that was constructed with an investment of Rs 380 million from the Danish government and Rs 120 million from the Nepali government and is supposed to be run by the industries located inside HIZ from 2010 AD.

The plant was established with the motive of purifying polluted water from Hetauda Textile Industry, which used to be let out into the Rapti River directly and was a major pollutant. But since the textile industry has been shut down, the production of wastewater has decreased, manager Ghimire told The Himalayan Times.

He also added that 13 industries including Bone Processing Pvt Ltd, Hetauda Dairy Distribution Project, Nepal Vegetable Ghee Industry Pvt Ltd, Hisi Polythene Pvt Ltd, Om Textiles Pvt Ltd, Narayani Feeds Industries, United Brewery Pvt Ltd, National Seeds Company, Alkocha CSI Pvt Ltd, Everest Containers and National Soap Industries produce wastewater which should be treated before being let out into the river directly.

According to Ghimire, industries like United Brewery, Mahashakti soap and Everest Foods are not being operated properly due to various reasons.

The treatment plant, which is located on the lowland in the northern part of HIZ, occupies seven bigha and 15 kattha of land. The technology used for water treatment is completely natural. Ghimire also said that an emergency tank, nine aerobic and two anaerobic ponds along with the other necessary machineries have been constructed. He also said that a 6.8-km long underground sewer and a 10-km long surface sewer have been constructed to transfer the polluted water from industries to the treatment plant.

According to the decision made by the secretaries of the ministry of industries, commerce and supply, a six-member committee under the coordination of chairman of Makwanpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has been formed for running the plant. The committee consists of two members from Industrial Association of HIZ, chief of cottage and small-scale industries, the city mayor and the manager of the HIZ. The manager of the HIZ would also be the member secretary of the committee.

Industries are not supposed to discard polluted water without primary treatment but six industries within the HIZ, namely Birat Leather, Vegetable Ghee, Everest Foods, Mahashakti Soap, United Brewery and Hetauda Dairy Distribution Project, are said to be discarding industrial effluents without primary treatment, informed manager Ghimire.

Dr Uttam Kunwar, senior programme executive of Environmental Sector Programme Support (ESPS) said that Birat Leather and Mahashakti Soap have been stopped from discharging industrial effluents due to excessive chemical waste. But plants have not been established yet.