Issues of Urban Waste Water: Some insights from Darjeeling Town

MINGMA LAMU SHERPA

According to NITI Aayog report (2022) rural regions of India generated approximately 39,604 million litres per day of wastewater whereas urban region generated approximately 72,368 MLD wastewater during the year 2020-21. The report highlighted that the volume of urban wastewater is almost double than the rural counterpart. With rapid increasing trends of urbanization, urban population size is further estimated to increase in alarming rate. This would put more pressure on freshwater demand especially in those urban sector where water resource is already scarce. Therefore NITI Aayog report (2022) highlights the significance of efficient wastewater management in the urban sector of India.

Mostly untreated urban wastewater find its way towards river or lakes or groundwater aquifers which results in contamination and deterioration of fresh water. In NITI Aayog report (2022) CPCB has found that 13% of Indian river stretches are in Priority 1 (Severely polluted), 17% in Priority 2 and 3 (moderately polluted). The report also highlighted that high levels of heavy metals, arsenic, fluorides, and hazardous chemicals are also found in many places, especially in groundwater.

Wastewater generation and treatment capacity gap at city level in India

In the context of Darjeeling town where urban population and demand for clean water is increasing day by day, the necessity of waste water treatment plant is outmost important. In addition the open dumping of untreated waste water into the jhoras and river will have direct impact on marine ecology and as well as towards the low lying agricultural area. Darjeeling was developed basically for an administrative and recreational centre by the British. Required infrastructural development was planned for 15,000 population. Similarly, the sewage system was also build for sustaining the minor population. However, till today Darjeeling town uses same old sewage system or septic tank to sustain the present population.

Darjeeling has open dumping known as Darjeeling dumping ground located at the Amarjyoti Gram Sudher Kumara Road which is for solid waste dumping. For liquid waste Darjeeling town has 5 septic tanks within its 32 wards but functioning of the tank is questionable. It is unfortunate to observe that most of the pipelines, valves are dated back to 1935 that is of British era and is not reconstructed or changed. Thus the sewage flowing through the pipes either gets leaked in its pathways or is dispense in the jhoras without any management. Thus the term ‘Legacy Waste’ is more appropriate since the solid waste and the sewage waste both has been dumped for past many years at the same dumping ground. Today scholars and even scientist are unable to fathom the approx. amount of waste dumped. Dumping ground has been used by many generation that today a local resident do not know how long it has been there and how much amount of waste has been dumped there. Today most of the liquid waste goes to jhoras without management. Currently liquid waste flows directly to 109 jhoras without treatment.

Open disposal of sewage can lead to severe health hazard. In Darjeeling Municipality out of 32 wards, 21 wards have almost 97% of the spring outlets whereas 11 wards do not have any access to natural springs. In addition, the physical and microbial characteristics of spring water in and around Darjeeling Municipality are questionable. Regular outbreaks of diarrhoea, dysentery and other diseases have been reported among the population of Darjeeling town. Gastro enteric disease is so common in the hills. Most of the water sources are contaminated by waste and sewage. Dysentery and diarrhoea are very common, especially in villages that depend on streams and rivers. It is estimated that 70% of the population of the Darjeeling hills suffer from severe attacks of gastro enteric diseases at least thrice a year. Typhoid is another third most common reportable disease in the Darjeeling.

Over the ages Darjeeling has adopted much unsustainable malpractice and the name given to Darjeeling “the queen of hills”  is now no longer going to be an eye candy of the serene hill station. It is a high time that the people, society and the administration should come together for the better positive change. Identification of most suitable dumping ground is needed, mandatory segregation of waste at sources is needed, recycle and reuse approach need to be applied, private-public partnership need to be build up strong, strict penalise need to be implemented and most importantly Darjeeling need to look towards wastewater treatment techniques. Treated wastewater can fill up the gap towards a water secure future of Darjeeling. Wastewater can be a reliable and cost effective source of fresh water if treated properly. Treated wastewater can be a boom for the agricultural production when it flows as a fresh water in jhoras and rivers. It can highly help in sustaining the ever growing water demand of Darjeeling town people. Thus it is a high time that Darjeeling should see the wastewater as a “Resource” rather than a “Waste” and start the process of tapping it in a scientific way for better sustainable future.

(The author is a MA Geography student of Sikkim Alpine University, Namchi. She is currently doing her MA Dissertation under Dr. Pribat Rai, Head, Geography, SAU. Her Dissertation title is “Wastewater in Darjeeling Town: Issues, Challenges and Proposition”)