bangalore apartment STPs

In Bengaluru, apartments have to set up their own Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to manage the sewage they generate. But the design and operations of most apartment STPs are flawed. Often, residents suffer due to the poor quality of treated water which they have to reuse; and excess sludge from the STP is dumped elsewhere, endangering public health. We, at Brigade Altamont apartment in K Narayanapura, recently fine-tuned our STP system so as to make it fully legally-compliant, and with little investment. K Narayanapura has no underground sewer network, and our apartment is located near a rajakaluve that traverses Arkavathy…

Today, a large number of apartment complexes, malls and tech parks in Bengaluru have their own STPs (Sewage Treatment Plants). If an STP is working properly, its treated water would look just like tap water - clear, without any odour. In addition, it must meet the specifications set by the State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). If the treated water looks dark brown, or stinks, the STP owner knows that the STP has some trouble. But even if the treated water looks clear and odour-free, it may still not meet specifications; and the owner may not be even aware that his STP…

In the last couple of months, many apartment complexes in Bengaluru got notices from the state Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), asking them to pay a penalty of Rs 5 lakh, for discharging untreated sewage outside their premises. Many of these apartments were already running Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), and these were functioning well as per routine lab tests that the apartments used to get done. So, the apartments wrote to KSPCB instead of paying up. But the Board did not respond to the residents’ concerns. Instead, it issued them a ‘show cause’ notice, mentioning that they hadn’t paid the fines…

Srinivas (52), Mahadev Gowda (42), Narayana Swamy (35) died while they were cleaning the Collection Tank of the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in ND Sepal Apartments in HSR Layout. The apartment management association RWA of the 80-unit complex, largely occupied by software engineers, now finds itself charged with a crime under IPC section 304A. STP issue was in news recently because of a tussle between the government and the apartment owners. Following a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, the Government made it mandatory for even older apartment complexes to have STPs in their premises and added a penalty for failing…

It’s been a protracted battle that lasted for over 15 months, involving lakhs of apartment residents, thousands of apartment complexes, hundreds of representations to Government and Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), tens of court cases and one protest rally. The Government of Karnataka has finally made BWSSB withdraw the retrospective Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) notification imposed on apartments, based on a presentation done by the Governing Council of Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF). During this period, apartment residents have been unreasonably and unfairly accused of not doing their bit for the city, by “opposing STPs”. To clear up the…