Consultant hired to assess sewage plant of INA

The Indian Naval Academy (INA) authorities have informed that the academy has hired a consultant to get its sewage treatment plant (STP) examined and to technologically advance it in compliance with the proposals made by the Pollution Control Board (PCB).
Commodore Kamalesh Kumar, Commanding Officer, INS Zamorin of the INA stated that every issue raised by the PCB would be resolved.
In two months, the consultant would submit a report and once the INA got a go-ahead from the PCB, it would execute the works on a war footing, he said. He also said that all efforts were made to obtain PCB’s certification for the INA’s STP at the earliest.
“We are the only organisation in this part of the Kerala which has got the affluent treatment plant,” Commodore Kumar said adding that the no agency including Centre for Water Resource Development and Management (CWRDM) had conclusively said that the leakages in the STP could be attributed to the contamination of groundwater wells at Ramanthali.
He said that the allegation was a perception created by certain vested interests. He also said a new STP would be coming up inside the academy soon to meet with the institution’s expansion in four or five years.
Commodore Kumar said that the STP, which protesting local residents said was contaminating their water resources, is located 27 metres away from the nearest well, whereas septic tanks in the households at Ramanthali were closer to wells than the law permits.
District Collector Mir Mohammed Ali, who was also present there at the press meet, agreed that the CWRDM had taken samples from across the whole district and findings are there that the contamination at Ramanthali was not very different from that of the water resources present elsewhere.
All water samples collected from other parts also found to have coliform and e coli. The agencies who tested the water samples at Ramanthali could not conclusively say that it was the INA’s STP was contaminating the wells, he added.
The Collector also said that the Health Department officials who had analysed water in the area found that there was nothing to panic.
Groundwater at Ramanthali as in other places in the district could be used for drinking if it was boiled for five to 10 minutes, he said.

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