Agnes Krocha
The April showers we’ve had recently, I’m sure, had refreshed every living creature wherever it had fallen. With water scarcity becoming a constant problem especially at this time of the year the falling of rain brings such relief to one and all. Water – the elixir of life, after all, who will not want it. Perhaps, the only times we do not want water in the form of rain is when it brings flood in plain areas and brings about so much destruction of life forms through it, or so I thought.
Walking down a road on a rainy afternoon sometime this year, a friend and I encountered a lady complaining on the road about her neighbor who was utilizing the rain to drain off his septic tank into the road. It was raining heavily that day and my friend and I initially didn’t realize we were walking on heavily infected water – it was dark liquid everywhere, we simply thought it was muddy water. Had it not been for that complaining lady and that unpleasant odor we sensed later we would not have known it was the septic- tank’s – day – out into the neighborhood. I wondered how many did that same deed that day and now whenever it rains I’ve begun to wonder how many will be letting out their septic tanks. Coming to think of it, that was not even the monsoon time, which made me learn one lesson – Not only living creatures like us but a lot of cesspools also seem to eagerly wait in great expectation for the rains to come.
Well, we can’t help but empty our tanks of waste when they are filled. But there are thoughts we need to consider if we are going to let them out in any direction they want to flow. Mindful that these carry millions of microorganisms that can cause innumerable diseases, the number one thing we need to consider is treatment of the tank such that these microorganisms are killed and destroyed so that we won’t be destroyed. Letting out untreated septic tanks into the open in one’s neighborhood is like throwing a small bomb of microorganisms in it. If we do not treat them we might as well go back to that era of defecating in the open air. Next consider your source of water. Nowadays, we have so many types of dug wells to draw underground water. The water from our septic tanks along with the rain water can easily seep underground and get into our wells if we do not take precautions. Well, they say a dog can eat what it has vomited up and we are doing something similar when we contaminate our sources of water with our own sewage containing faecal matter. Faecal matter contains large number of pathogens, which on entering our water bodies will ultimate enter into our own bodies causing various kinds of diseases in us. Hence, not only is safely emptying our septic tanks a matter of maintaining good relationships in one’s neighborhood but more importantly it is a matter of life and death.
So, discharge your over - filled septic tanks, along with the rain water also, if you must, but do so wisely. Make sure it is disinfected first whether or not you are discharging it into your waterways and make sure it’s not allowed to be discharged near your wells or ponds to pollute it and also make sure it is not flowing into the road when it rains lest people think it’s just muddy water and be deceived. Meanwhile let’s keep our fingers crossed for sewage treatment plants to mushroom in Nagaland and look forward to sincerely serious legislations to be enforced to control pollution caused by discharges of such effluents.
(The writer has done M.Sc (Environmental Science and Technology) and B.Ed. She also writes and teaches science in a High School) aggiekrocha@gmail.com
