Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Jeera River, a tributary of the Mahanadi River, has dangerously high pollution levels, according to the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), Odisha. In their affidavit to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the SPCB also said that the Jeera River’s water is unfit for human consumption, including bathing. The SPCB had taken surface water samples from the Jeera River upstream (near Bargarh Law College) and downstream (near PHED Pada at the old water intake point) of Bargarh town as directed by the NGT in response to a plea submitted by a man named Ramakanta Rout.
The results of the test report showed that the upstream sample from the river at Bargarh Law College had 790 MPN/100 ml, whereas the downstream sample from PHED Pada, Bargarh, had 54000 MPN/100 ml. The SPCB team also discovered that, in violation of all regulations, the Bargarh municipality is directly discharging untreated urban sewage from the town of Bargarh into the Jeera River. The Bargarh Municipality has suggested installing five 125 KLD Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) at five separate locations inside the municipality during a case hearing. Therefore, we mandate that the aforementioned STPs be installed and operational by December 31, 2023.
During its inspection on March 21, 2025, the SPCB discovered that the Bargarh Municipality had not yet erected any STPs with the aforementioned capacity, or that no documentation pertaining to the creation of the STP was in the municipality’s possession. However, the Bargarh Municipality has erected and put into service a 30 KLD capacity Septage Treatment Plant (SeTP) in Tentela, and it has received a CTO via letter no. 562 dated April 3, 2022, which is valid until March 31, 2022. By December 31, 2023, the NGT additionally requested that the Bargarh Municipality guarantee full treatment of legacy trash using Material Recovery Facilities, Biomining, and Micro Composting Centers.
However, the SPCB affidavit exposed that the Municipal Authority has not completed the remediation of the legacy waste at the alleged dumpsite site near the town till the inspection by SPCB team on March 21. During the inspection, it was observed that approximately 20,000 MT (as enquired with the representative of the unit) only of legacy waste has been bio-mined out of approximately 51,476 MT from the dumping site. The apex green court of the country also remarked that legacy waste dumpsites have resulted in huge damage to the environment and population in the vicinity of such dump sites, which have suffered in safety, health, and comfort. It has been directed that one-third of the land occupied by legacy dump sites (on reclamation) needs to be reserved for afforestation, but the SPCB in its affidavit clarified that the Bargarh Municipality has no information about such orders.
Meanwhile, the NGT on May 14 asked the Odisha SPCB to file an Action Taken Report by May 20 in connection with action taken against the Bargarh municipality for failing to comply with the instructions of the apex green court.
