The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has decided to set up a 250 KLD effluent treatment plant in Peenya and Dasarahalli.
The board officials said a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) will be set up by October 2021 at a cost of Rs 10 crore for the small and medium industries that cannot set up their own plants.
The CETP will cater to those industries that produce about 500 to 1000 litres of effluent per day. Rules stipulate that bulk effluent producers must set up their own plants.
"Till now, the small and medium industries had to take their effluent to four CETPS on the outskirts of the city,” said a senior official. “The transportation cost would add to treatment charges. They had to shell out Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 per litre. Setting up a local CETP will bring down the cost to Re 1 or even less."
The news is significant after a study found a large amount of heavy metals and chemicals in the water in the two areas.
The 2018 study by the Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute warned that a high amount of dissolved solids (TDS) and one or other heavy metals was found in most of the 46 observation wells. Apart from TDS, chloride, and nitrate, the study also found a "high concentration of heavy metals, especially chromium, hexavalent chromium, cobalt, nickel, zinc, and copper, etc" in the groundwater during the water quality monitoring.