OSPCB slaps closure notice on ten Odisha hotels for water pollution

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Aug 23:

The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has slapped closure notice on 10 hotels located in Bhubaneswar and Puri for failing to comply with pollution control norms.

The Board has listed 10 hotels including Hotel Suryansh in the city and Hotel Chariot Resort and Spa, Hotel Seagull, Hotel Camelia, Hotel Trimurti Heights, Hotel Laxmi Jyoti, Hotel Banga Laxmi, Hotel Prabhupada, Hotel Shree Hari and Hotel Niladri in Puri for violating the Water (prevention and control of pollution) Act, 1974.

All the ten hotels have been served show cause notices.

Two notices have been served to the hotel authorities- one on August 11 and another on August 18 – asking them for immediate closure.

Most of the hotels in Puri are flouting the water pollution norms, H B Panigrahi, OSPCB regional officer said.

Panigrahi said the hotels have been discharging waste water of restaurants, kitchens and toilets to the drains and the sea.

The board’s move to serve show cause notices came after it tested water samples taken from near Bankimuhana on the Puri beach, where all the drains discharge the wastes.

“The water samples had high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). High BOD and COD content in water indicate lesser oxygen presence, unfit for human consumption and cause of pollution,” he said. This apart, oil, grease and suspended particulate matter have also been detected in the samples,” he added.

The ten accused hotels have not installed Sewerage Treatment Plants (STP) resulting in the discharge of untreated waste water into the sea through the drainage channels, said the officer.

“We have given a week’s time to adhere to the notices served by the board to the hoteliers. If they fail to do so, further directions will be issued to the chief electrical engineer for disconnection of power supply to these hotels,” Panigrahi said, adding district Collector along with board officials will visit the respective hotels to seize it.

Reacting to the notice of OSPCB Hotel Suryansh executive director P D Gupta said the allegation of the board officials of non-installation of STP machine is false but the STP had not functioned properly on the day when inspecting officials of the board had visited to the hotel for checking.