PANJIM: Sewerage & Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa’s endorsement of a specific sewerage management technology C-Tech, owned by SFC Environmental Technologies Private Limited (as exposed by Herald yesterday), has a reason for its enforcement. It is about favouring one technology and its owners with royalties worth crores.
Since 2014, several major Sewerage Treatment Plants (STP) have been proposed and are under construction in Goa. In Margao, a 20 MLD STP costing Rs 37.89 crore and another 6.75 MLD STP currently under construction, a Rs 21.9 Crore, 7.5 MLD STP at Colva almost 80% complete, a Rs 47.47 crore 20 MLD STP at Vasco, all have the same C-Tech technology.
In PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar’s backyard Ponda, a network of three STP plants – a 15MLD plant in Kavalem, a 15MLD plant in Bandoda and 8MLD plant in Kurti come with a price tag of Rs 200 crore. What is interesting is that the tender notices for all the STPs were floated by either specifying C-Tech as the technology or by specifying Cyclic Activated Sludge Technology with an unusually long list of required experience.
For example, the Vasco STP wanted the bidder to have successfully completed, on ‘turnkey basis, the work of design, construction, supply, installation, testing, commissioning , trial run and O&M of at least one of the following capacity STP during the last seven years based on SBR/Cyclic Activated Sludge Technology (CAST) in India, working for at least two year as on date and at least one STP of 16MLD capacity or at least two STPs 10MLD each or at least three STPs of 8MLD each’. This condition narrows the bidders to a select few contractors who provide C-Tech technology, the branded version of Cyclic Activated Sludge Technology,
Herald had asked SIDCGL the reason why it chose C-Tech (see box) and 72 hours later Goa still does not know why the government is backing C-Tech for Rs 262 crore worth of sewerage project of SIDCGL and Rs 30 crore worth of similar projects that are funded by JICA. Is there no other STP technology which is better than C-Tech?
The fact is there is no one size fits all model for sewerage treatment plant technology. In order to select the technology it must meet the standards for Treated Sewage Quality Quantity, Minimize Land Requirement where ever cost of land is high, Minimize Capital Cost for construction and it must have low O&M Cost. Before constructing the plant, the authorities must assess the availability of land, power, funding, total capacity required, environmental impact on the surrounding areas and various other factors. However, the State government has been seen to do no such feasibility or needs analysis study while proposing these plants. It is this secrecy and forcible enforcing of proposals that have triggered protests in Undir and Colva where villagers are opposing STPs at their current proposed sites.
The government to date has never released any report on why it prefers C-Tech. In 2003, the government had deputed the Director of Science, Technology & Environment, Chief Engineer-I and Superintending Engineer, Circle Office V, PWD to visit and examine the only C-Tech plants at Potsdam and Neubrandenburg (Germany) and Salzburg (Austria). The government in the past has said that C-Tech was selected on the basis of this study. The study was never made public.
So SIDCGL’s endorsement of C-Tech as the only sewerage technology for Goa can be answered only by a comparative study of C-Tech with other available technology by Goa government and credible independent institutions. Even in the High Court, the government has claimed that C-Tech is better than conventional STP without specifying the exact technology nor submitting the report to the High Court. A statement cannot be considered reliable just because it has been made. C-Tech is a proprietary brand and many of its specifications not available in the public domain, which is why there is no comparative study existing to other technologies available in India and abroad. The government has no defence as to why it is peddling an unproven technology.
