Thirteen gram panchayats alongside the Hindon in Ghaziabad will get silt-catchers and filter chambers by mid-November to prevent household garbage from draining directly into the river, district administration officials said.
Of the 18 gram panchayats located along the river’s 55km stretch in the district, 13 have household drains emptying waste directly into the river. District panchayati raj officer Zahid Husain explained that a silt-catcher traps household garbage from flowing into the river, while a filter chamber uses a multi-stage system with pretreatment sedimentation and a filter bed to remove pollutants.
The construction of both structures for each gram panchayat will cost about 1 lakh, funded by the state government. Officials have also planned a “pad yatra” in these villages to increase awareness among locals, along with a plantation drive in February/March next year to plant nearly one lakh trees on both sides of the river.
The 13 gram panchayats include Morti, Rewri Rewda, Bhanera Khurd, Bhoopkhedi, Mataur, and Suthari.
The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board has placed the river in category E—the lowest classification—declaring it unfit for drinking, bathing, or aquatic life, with water only suitable for irrigation, industrial cooling, and controlled waste disposal.
Within Ghaziabad municipal corporation jurisdiction, the river has nine major drains emptying untreated waste. The UP Jal Nigam has prepared a detailed project report for tapping seven drains and constructing a new 140MLD capacity sewage treatment plant, estimated at 630 crore. The seven drains at City Forest, Hindon Vihar, Nandgram, Kaila Bhatta, Pratap Vihar, Rahul Vihar, and Dasna discharge a total of 139MLD.
The remaining two drains at Arthala and Karhera, discharging 11MLD untreated waste, will be tapped in an under construction project in Sahibabad with capacity to treat 68MLD sewage.
