Once in the vicinity of Sewage Treatment Plants (STP), most of us immediately try to shut our nose, expecting a foul smell, but the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) is creating green buffer zones with trees and plants surrounding a couple of operational plants in Mira Road. Taking a step further, the MBMC has started its first specially designed tertiary treatment plant (TTP) in the Hatkesh area of Kashimira. The plant further purifies the water which is utilized to maintain the greenery by the recycled water. Carrying a price tag of around Rs. 4 crore, the TTP has a capacity of treating five MLD water on a daily basis. Tertiary treatment is an advanced process that further purifies secondary treated sewage and produces better quality water.
Presently, the water is being used to maintain greenery at municipal gardens, grounds and traffic islands in the twin-city. “We will soon start using the water for fire-fighting operations and even start a tanker point at the TTP to supply water at subsidized rates for construction activities. This is a pilot project and we are confident of its success following which we are planning to replicate the model at all our STP’s.” said Executive Engineer- Suresh Vakode. Apart from underground storage facilities, the civic administration has also constructed an overhead tank which will source water to specially colour coded tankers indicating non-potable usage. The civic aims to supply the recycled water to construction sites at Rs. 700 per tanker, which is Rs. 200 cheaper than the average market rates. Moreover, the TTP purified water is desalinated ensuring much better quality.
The decentralized underground sewage treatment system of the twin-city is spread in a radius of 24 square km having a network of 107 km’s of sewer lines, 10 pumping stations supported by an equal number of STP’s. For an economical and environmentally sustainable end-result, the STP’s are equipped with the advanced moving bed biofilm reactor technology. The efforts are aimed to reduce stress on freshwater consumption.
