Reply by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) with respect to the news item titled "Pavana river enters priority 1 category due to increase in pollution' appearing in the Hindustan Times, February 26, 2024.

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The matter is related to the increasing biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in the Pawana river which is a prominent source of drinking water of the Pimpari-Chinchwad city, Maharashtra that has entered priority 1 or most polluted category of rivers/river stretches as per the report of the CPCB.

The action plan for rejuvenation of the polluted stretch of river Pawana identified under Priority Class II was approved by the CPCB task team, March 28, 2019. The action plan is being implemented by the Maharashtra state government agencies and progress of implementation of approved action plan is periodically reviewed by RRC at the state level and the Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) at central level.

PCMC, December 30, 2024 submitted the updated status of implementation of action plan of Pawana river to MPCB. It is observed that the status of most of the actions especially related to sewage management are still under implementation stage. "The timelines specified in the approved action plan for Pawana river of 2019 are already over," the report said. The updated status mainly outlines the current status on generation and treatment of sewage, various ongoing projects related to the management of sewage and other ongoing activities, "without the revised and specific timelines for completion of actions in the aforesaid action plan," the report by CPCB stated.