Odisha’s septage infra one of the best in country: Experts

Bhubaneswar: The experts have rated Odisha’s septage infrastrucure as one of the best in the country, at a regional workshop held at Odisha Urban Academy here on Saturday.

The workshop organised by Housing & Urban Development department Odisha in collaboration with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi was on reuse of bio-solids harvested from septage and sewage.

The discussion focused on reuse and resource recovery of harvested bio-solids from FSTPs and STPs, which can be a rich source of fertilisers in agriculture in India.

G Mathi Vathanan, principal secretary, H&UD, Odisha presented an overview of different urban sanitation and water initiatives, missions and programmes in Odisha, and the emerging challenges of re-use of harvested bio-solids.

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The state-wide rollout of convergence of rural and urban sanitation is currently underway, he added. He further highlighted the role of Odisha Urban Academy to strengthen the capacity building ecosystems in water, sanitation and inclusive urban development space.

Speaking at the workshop, Depinder Singh Kapur, Director (water programme), CSE, said: “There are over 500 FSTPs all over India, generating an estimated 250 tonne of bio-solids every day. Another 104,210 tonne of bio-solids are generated from the 1,469 STPs that exist in India. Odisha leads the country with its septage treatment infrastructure, covering 115 towns.”

Vinod Vijayan, deputy laboratory head at CSE shared the detailed technical findings of CSE study on bio-solids. Sagarika Pattanaik, special secretary and Durgesh Nadini Sahoo, additional secretary had represented H&UD department at the workshop.