India needs to adopt a five-pronged strategy to make sure urban cities across the country have adequate freshwater, with recycling used water being a key to reduce the stress on freshwater resources, Rajiv Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of VA Tech Wabag told Moneycontrol in the context of World Water Day on March 22.
Mittal, who has had a career spanning three decades in the water industry, highlighted that India's non-revenue water is amongst the highest in the world and that the country stands very low when it comes to recycling used water.
Non-revenue water (NRW) refers to the water that has been produced and is "lost" before it reaches the customer.
"In India the biggest obstacle in recycling/reusing water is perception. People will store water from the holy rivers in their homes but will refuse to reuse water from their wash basins," Mittal said.
Also Read: Water-stressed India: Channel treated wastewater from cities to irrigation and industry
Highlighting that recycled water is the way forward for water security, Mittal said that landlocked cities like Delhi and Bengaluru, which are expected to reach record-high water scarcity level in the upcoming summer months, should promote reusing water from wash basins for gardening, toilets and introduce two-pipe systems.
"And I think it's a low-hanging fruit to make people aware that recycled water is equally safe to drink and use it for various industries and household purposes," Mittal said.
He added that state government and municipal corporations of cities should ensure that infrastructure companies don't use freshwater for construction activities and instead use recycled or treated water.
Treated wastewater should be promoted as a reliable water source for industries and domestic use. Industries could also tap recycled water in tankers and the construction industry must not be allowed to use freshwater sources, he said.
Also Read: PM Modi underscores importance of sustainable water management
Mittal added that desalination could be one of the technologies to be used in coastal region facing water shortage.
On the desalination plant coming up in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu with a capacity to treat 400 million litres of seawater daily, Mittal said engineering and procurement work had started and the project would be finished in 42 months. The State government also accorded operation and maintenance of the plant for 20 years to the company.
Mittal added that desalinated water from the upcoming plant will work out to be one-third of tanker water supply. Consumers would pay about Rs 700 or Rs 800 for 10,000 litres of desalinated water.
The central government, as part of the Budget for 2023-24, had earmarked Rs 1.07 lakh crore towards water and related infrastructure under six different schemes, an increase from Rs 83,525 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 91,567 crore in 2021-22.
According to a written reply by Bishweswar Tudu, Minister of State for Jal Shakti, the proposed sewage generation and treatment capacity of urban centres is around 4,827 MLD.
Also Read: Bengaluru water crisis: How Indigo is tackling the problem of water shortage
At least 10 more STPs are being planned at Pinjore and Hansi (Haryana), Loniapurva in Lucknow, Hathras (UP), Narela in Delhi, Kosi Kalan near Mathura, Indore, Keorapukar in Kolkata, Raiya in Rajkot and Kota in Rajasthan.
Highlighting his five-pronged strategy to ensure water security in India, Mittal said that the government should adopt five major steps including reducing NRW in India.
"I think it's a crime if we have double digit NRW. So I think if you start conserving this water, you suddenly have 15-20 percent extra water," Mittal said.
He added that the second part of his five-pronged strategy should be future planning and not waiting for water scarcity to take action, especially in metropolitan cities.
The third and fourth plans include setting up of desalination plants and water treatment plants across cities to reuse and recycle water
The last part is rainwater harvesting, Mittal said.
"So much of rain we get in our country, but we do not have a systematic way of collecting it, storing it and I think Chennai has shown a way that even with limited rain we get, every house, every building, every commercial installment has a rainwater harvesting. This is also one of the way to conserve water," Mittal said.
With an estimated population of about 14 million, Bengaluru, known as the Silicon City of India, currently faces a severe water scarcity.
Amidst the threat of heatwaves, the situation is expected to worsen and is unlikely to subside soon. The ongoing water scarcity is primarily due to EL Nino, which resulted in a failed monsoon last year.
The city’s water demand is around 2,100 MLD (millions of litres per day), of which around 1,470 MLD is met by the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWSSB), with the rest sourced from groundwater.
As borewells and major reservoirs in the Cauvery Basin dry up, several residential communities across the city are turning to private water supplies.
Also Read: Water scarcity: Bengaluru water board mandates installation of aerators in taps
In the absence of adequate and reliable municipal supply, during periods of acute water shortages, the unmet demand for water is mostly fulfilled by private suppliers, usually through the informal market.
Similarly, every summer, parts of Delhi grapple with acute water scarcity, exacerbated by contamination of the Yamuna and groundwater depletion.
Sixty percent of the water supplied by the Delhi Jal Board is sourced from the polluted Yamuna, while the remaining comes from groundwater.
Reversing groundwater depletion and improving water quality are critical to addressing Delhi's water woes.
According to a World Bank report, India with 18 percent of the world's population has only 4 percent of water resources. Per capita water availability is around 1,100 cubic metres (m3), against globally recognised threshold water stress of 1,700 m3 per person.
India is also the largest net exporter of virtual water (needed to produce products that are exported). Virtual water is the water “hidden” in the products, services and processes people buy and use every day. Virtual water often goes unseen by the end-user of a product or service, but that water has been consumed throughout the value chain, which makes creation of that product or service possible.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, while urban sewage generation is estimated at 72,368 million litres per day (MLD), installed sewage treatment capacity is only 31,841 MLD. As of December 12, 2022, operational capacity was 26,869 MLD.
Experts say India's current water treatment capacity is only 27.3 percent and sewage treatment is 18.6 percent.
As per industry estimates, 15 water treatment plant projects — Chembarambakkam (Chennai), Ujjain, Sehore, Ratlam, Khandwa, Dhar, Chandigarh, Kamrej, Prayagraj, Vadodara, Shimla, Balliya, Baran and Chittorgarh — are in the bidding stage. Setting up 1 MLD of water unit costs around Rs 50 lakh.
Capital expenditure on India's water and wastewater is estimated at $2.3 billion between 2023 and 2027. Of this, $1.5 billion will be from utility/other segments and $717 million from the industrial sector.
According to Niti Aayog, the market for wastewater treatment plants, worth $2.4 billion in 2019, is anticipated to reach $4.3 billion by 2025.
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