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Wastewater treatment vital in ensuring water security, say experts

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The New Indian Express      23.03.2017

Wastewater treatment vital in ensuring water security, say experts

By Express News Service  |   Published: 23rd March 2017 01:30 AM  |  

Last Updated: 23rd March 2017 06:22 AM  |   A+A-   |  

CHENNAI: With the demand for water increasing steadily and the supply tightening, water security was the focal point during the final panel discussion at The Water Conclave on Wednesday. The panel underlined the importance of wastewater treatment and how it could go a long way to boost water security.

Shanmugam Sundaramoorthy, former engineering director, Metrowater, emphasised on sewage as a resource. He said a whopping 760 MLD of wastewater was going down the drain daily and spoke of models that had been effectively implemented abroad to recycle this water.

“Treating sewage to reach drinking water quality is not a myth,” said Sundaramoorthy. “It costs only half of what sea water desalination costs and sewage can be treated to a safe degree.”

Naina Shah, director, Ecoparadigm, spoke about decentralised wastewater treatment systems that could be put to use without worrying about the constraints of space and energy sources. “By the time the water is completely treated, one cannot make out that it is sewage water from its colour or smell,” said Shah. “This method works because it functions as an independent entity. It is not dependent on electricity or anything else.”

Ranjan Panda, known as the Water Man of Odisha, explained why cities could not grow at the expense of rural areas and how at this point we were more concerned about distributing the water that is left rather than looking at means to recharge and rejuvenate our water resources.

“Water is only considered an engineer’s subject,” said Panda. “But water is more than that. It influences sociology, ecology and politics.”

Panda warned of the ill-effects of large-scale urbanisation. “We have started to think urbanisation is unstoppable,” said Panda. “We have started to think that it is necessary to kill forests and water bodies. We think this is ‘progress.’ But with the amount of water that we are guzzling, we are not moving towards a sustainable future.”

Last Updated on Friday, 24 March 2017 14:13