STP Plant: Maintenance & Challenges

Proper sewage management should be an essential part of our daily life. With the need for clean surroundings emphasized by activists and the government, it is important that we all do our bit. However, we often see sewage management as a solely municipal function with little or no community involvement in the actual treatment or management.

However, this is foolhardy. We should all understand how the sewage from our homes is treated and where it goes. In fact, with many self-managed smaller communities now emerging as parallel urban centres, this awareness towards a more decentralized approach towards the establishment and running of STP plant is increasing.

While all of us are not required to know the basics of an STP plants, there are times when even a lay person has to know the basics of an STP plants. Some professionals and people who need to have this knowledge are: 

·       Builders

·       Managing committees of a residential society

·       Facility managers for office complexes/factories/malls

·       Municipal workers

·       Anyone interested!

 Ensuring Regular Maintenance of an STP Plant

 The benefits of ensuring a smoothly running STP plants are obvious. The only way to achieve this is through regular maintenance. Treating sewage regularly is essential for maintaining a clean environment around us. Yet, some people still neglect this essential function. They see it as a onetime installation that is to be attended to only if something goes wrong.

 But, a backed up or malfunctioning STP plant can be a nightmare for everyone concerned. Many a time the failure of an STP plant is usually because of the lack regular maintenance in the first place. Some of the benefits of a well run STP plant are:

·       Ensuring the availability of treated water for various uses

·       Saving of fresh water that would be otherwise utilized

·       Cleaner surroundings

·       Less likelihood of sewage mixing in fresh water sources

·       Positive impact on public health

Challenges Faced

Managing the STP plant is obviously not without its challenges. In fact, a large number of municipal plants are today under-functioning or not functioning at all. This has brought the problem of sewage treatment to a critical level. Hence, it is important that we understand the challenges that we can face at a more basic level. We should also understand and address the challenges

Lack of commitment: There has been a worrying lack of commitment on the part of the government and municipal bodies. Of all the STP plants in India, less than half are working at properly. Most of them are lying unused. There is very little effort spent in the regular care and maintenance of the plants and the results are there to see.

Funding constraints: Proper sewage management is simply not seen as a priority and hence, there is little drive to allocate sufficient funds to the management and building of STP plants. Even when initial funds are released, procuring further funds for proper running and maintenance can be a nightmare. The fact is that even if we fixed up all the malfunctioning plants, India will still need hundreds more. There is negligible outlay to meet this cost.

Lack of awareness: Sewage treatment cannot be the sole responsibility of the government. Yet, we the people have very little awareness or idea about its stages, benefits and dire need. This lack of awareness means that we do little at community level or push our leaders to show a stronger commitment.

Lack of emphasis on recycled water: With scarcity of water reaching critical levels, wastewater management becomes even more essential. IN fact, it is this requirement that has pushed better sewage management in a number of countries. However, we are still largely oblivious to this requirement.

Lack of well built STP plants: STP plants have a very precise design and function. These must be built keeping in mind the amount and kind of waste generated. An improperly built plant will fail to treat the waste in the right manner and will eventually fail. Unfortunately, these basics are often ignored when building the plants. The reason range from lack of awareness by the commissioning body to a lack of skill among the engineers.

Conclusion

Given the state of STP plants in India, we urgently need a more proactive national policy. However, there is much we can do at an individual level. We can build decentralized plants, ensure their running and urge our leaders to work for the cause.