With only 10 per cent of Patna’s population connected to a sewage network system, some NGOs claim 90 per cent of the city’s excreta is flowing directly or indirectly into the Ganga river.
The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) does concede that while the city generates 290 MLD of sewage, half flows directly into the Ganga. The other half seeps underground polluting the groundwater which is then used to supply drinking water to the public. The PMC has three sewage treatment plants with a combined capacity of 105 MLD but just about 50 MLD of sewage reaches these plants since their sewage system is completely dilapidated.
These plants also perform poorly on account of power failure and poor maintenance.
The result is that when Patna’s Public Health Institute tested water samples, it found more than half to be full of bacterial contamination and unfit for human consumption.
Against the permissible level of 100 per mililitre of facecal coliform, tests have indicated an average of 5,056. The permissible level for total coliforms is also 100 per ML but tests have shown this to be an average of 13,533 at Patna.
“Patna is drinking its own sewage,” is the conclusion arrived at by the Centre of Science and Environment report on the state of water and sewage management titled Excreta Matters.
Nitya Jacob, who helped coordinate this report pointed out, “About 80 per cent of the water we consume ends up discharged as wastewater.”