Kanpur's Sisa mau drain hurdle for clean Ganga, IIT Roorkee roped in

NEW DELHI: The Centre is now facing one of its biggest challenges in cleaning up Ganga -Kanpur's Sisamau Nala, the dirtiest open drain of the stretch.

The drain discharges the highest amount of untreated sewage (138 MLD) into the river. The river also passes through one of the most populated and congested areas here. Since it is flanked by residential colonies and slums, the authorities at the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) are at a loss over how to divert the dirty water to the nearest sewage treatment plants (STPs).

They cannot build any new STP closer to the drain as there is hardly any land available in the area. Though they have planned to divert dirty water from the drain to existing STPs at Bingawan and Jaj mau, they have yet to figure out how to divert it without affecting the local population.

Looking for a unique solution for one of the biggest challenges on the most critical stretch (Kanpur-Varanasi) of the river Ganga, the Centre has asked IIT Roorkee to suggest ways to tap the Sisa mau drain. Experts of the institute will examine it and recommend the best options to the ministry of water resources. Though officials have zeroed in at a solution in the form of constructing a parallel `pipe drain', they will wait for the best possible suggestion from the IIT Roorkee.

Elsewhere, options of rubber dam' (cylindrical rubber fabrics placed across different tributaries of Ganga) will also be explored so that polluted water from such rivers can be diverted for treatment before being discharged into the river. Such dams are currently used in different parts of the world to divert water for irrigation and sewage retention separation.

The issue of `rubber dam' was flagged by the Uttar Pradesh irrigation minister Shivpal Singh Yadav during his meeting with Union water resources and Ganga rejuvenation minister Uma Bharti here on Thursday . Bharti is learnt to have told him that her ministry is ready to set up such dams in five-six cities across tributaries of Ganga and their `ghats'.