The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) to speed up the feasibility study on the development of the process package treatment method to check pollution of the Pallikkalar stretch in Karunagapally, and Edappally and Perandoor canals in Kochi.
The Southern Bench of the tribunal made the recommendation after the Environment department informed that the CSIR-NEERI may require 15 months to prepare the feasibility report. The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) had sanctioned ₹45 lakh to conduct the study, which is aimed at checking indiscriminate faecal contamination of waterbodies owing to dumping of untreated wastewater.
“Though it is felt that the duration of 15 months will be a little longer for such a project, we recommend that NEERI reduce the length of the period, so that the same model can be extended to other places where there is no underground sewage system,” it said.
