The Nag River Paradox: NMC Admits Sewage Inflows Are Poisoning Gosikhurd Dam

Environmentalists point out that recycling treated water only to dump it back into a compromised river system effectively dilutes the ecological benefits of the city's Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), especially when mixed further downstream with the massive volume of completely untreated urban runoff.In a major admission that underscores the growing pains of urban environmental management, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has officially confirmed that untreated sewage from the Nag River is actively polluting the downstream Gosikhurd Dam. This revelation, surfacing via a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by former corporator Vedprakash Arya, has ignited fresh public health and ecological concerns across the region.

Data provided by the NMC’s Public Health Engineering Department exposes a critical deficit in the city's wastewater infrastructure. Nagpur currently generates an estimated 520 million liters per day (MLD) of sewage. However, the combined infrastructure of the NMC and the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) manages to treat only 423.5 MLD—leaving nearly 96.5 MLD of raw, toxic effluent to pour directly into the river network daily.

The Treatment Contradiction

Even the wastewater that goes through the treatment process highlights a systemic contradiction in the civic body's cleanup model. Of the 423.5 MLD of treated water, 320 MLD is commercialized and sold to the Koradi and Khaparkheda thermal power stations. The remaining 103.5 MLD of treated effluent is discharged straight back into the Nag River channel.

Environmentalists point out that recycling treated water only to dump it back into a compromised river system effectively dilutes the ecological benefits of the city's Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), especially when mixed further downstream with the massive volume of completely untreated urban runoff.

Data Masking and Missing Health Audits

The RTI documents reveal an even more worrying administrative vacuum: despite acknowledging the downstream contamination of a critical regional water resource, the NMC’s Health Department has never conducted a structured health survey to assess the impact on agrarian and rural populations relying on Gosikhurd's waters.

Furthermore, the monitoring methodology itself has drawn sharp criticism. Water quality reports from September 2025 painted an optimistic picture, showing:

• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) levels safely below 5 mg/L

• Adequate dissolved oxygen levels

• Minimal bacterial contamination

However, these samples were collected from cleaner, upstream pockets like Shankar Nagar. Arya alleges that the NMC deliberately omitted sample collection from heavily industrial and densely populated stretches of East Nagpur, effectively masking the true intensity of the crisis flowing toward the reservoir.

A Historic Oversight This is not a new crisis. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) explicitly flagged the NMC's systemic inefficiencies in its local bodies audit report ending March 31, 2010, directly linking the city’s mismanagement to the degradation of the Gosikhurd reservoir. Nearly a generation later, the core conflict remains unresolved.

The ₹1,926-Crore Horizon

To bridge this gap between infrastructural capacity and environmental realities, the civic body is currently banking on the ₹1,926.99 crore Nag River Pollution Abatement Project. Jointly funded by the Central and State governments, the mega-project is designed to overhaul the city's sanitation footprint through:

• The construction of dedicated, high-capacity STPs.

• The deployment of over 500 kilometers of new sewer pipelines.

• Advanced pumping stations engineered to intercept raw sewage lines before they breach the riverbanks.

With engineering consultancy handled by Tata Consulting Engineers, the project is slated for completion within the next five years. However, as the city waits for these infrastructure investments to materialize, millions of liters of daily effluent continue to migrate toward a primary irrigation and water source. The RTI disclosures highlight that capital allocation alone cannot substitute for immediate accountability, rigorous downstream monitoring, and an urgent course correction in daily operations.