Pune: Environmentalists have expressed grave concerns about incessant and prolonged discharge of wastewater containing concrete into the Jambhulwadi lake near Katraj. According to them, the effluents originate from ready-mix-concrete (RMC) plants situated close to the waterbody. RTI activist Rupesh Kesekar said he has witnessed discharge from RMC plants being released into nullahs, going on to pollute the lake.
Local residents said repeated concrete dumping has been taking place in lake’s vicinity. Kesekar added, “This discharge has persisted for years now. I have discussed the necessity of a treatment apparatus with the units.
The companies said they already possess these. However, they still lack the capacity to process all the water discharged. The quantity of RMC plants has proliferated, all situated alongside nullahs that empty into the lake.
The water contains a high concentration of cement and concrete, which occasionally obstructs nullahs. I once got this blockage removed from a nullah using an earth-mover machine as the plants had also deposited a massive amount of debris into it.” Alerted about the issue, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) recently conducted an on-site inspection to investigate the claims.
Kartikeya Langote, sub-regional officer, MPCB, told TOI, “We did not discover evidence of RMC plants discharging effluents, but found one that needs to be shut down for other violations. However, sewage was once again observed being discharged into.