4 months ago
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The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) presently supplies astir 1,313 cardinal litres per time (mld) of h2o to the city, of which astir 83 mld is treated water. Shifting industries, operation activities, and ample commercialized establishments to treated h2o could importantly trim unit connected the city’s constricted freshwater sources, said Gaurav Kumar, Executive Director, CMWSSB, connected Tuesday.
In a sheet treatment connected ‘Recycling, Recharging, Restoring The New Imperatives for Water Management’ astatine The Hindu Sustainability Dialogue, held successful concern with Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Mr. Kumar said the metropolis already had a important installed h2o attraction capableness that was not being afloat utilised. Treated wastewater, which costs acold little than desalinated water, was the astir instantly disposable enactment to conscionable non-potable demand, helium said.
Surface water, Mr. Kumar pointed out, depended wholly connected rainfall, and portion creating caller reservoirs was possible, it was a semipermanent solution. Desalination, though important, progressive precocious superior costs, agelong gestation periods, and dense powerfulness consumption. Desalinated h2o costs the CMWSSB astir ₹45 per kilolitre, compared with ₹4–₹5 per kilolitre for treated wastewater, helium said.
Mr. Kumar said request simplification had to precede recycling and reuse. “Even tiny idiosyncratic actions could adhd up. Imagine, if randomly from time 50 lakh residents retired of 90 lakh successful Chennai determine to prevention a litre of h2o per day, the metropolis volition prevention 5 mld, capable to conscionable the regular needs of 7 1000 families,” helium said.
Speaking astir the usage of exertion amended ratio of h2o absorption and trim losses, Mr. Kumar said electromagnetic bulk travel meters had been installed crossed h2o attraction plants, organisation networks, sewage pumping stations, and sewage attraction plants to show travel and observe leakage. In addition, net of things-enabled ultrasonic sensors person been installed astatine astir 300 sewage pumping stations, enabling real-time monitoring of sewage levels.
Automation ofpumps, diesel generators, and powerfulness backup systems has reduced dependence connected manual intervention, portion a GIS-based mapping strategy is being utilized to coordinate with different civic agencies and forestall harm to underground pipelines during infrastructure works, Mr. Kumar explained.
Speaking connected concern h2o use, helium said municipality h2o accent could lone beryllium addressed done a operation of reducing depletion and expanding reuse. Industries relationship for astir 330 mld of Chennai’s regular h2o demand, and shifting them to treated wastewater could easiness unit connected freshwater sources.
Beyond concern reuse, treated wastewater tin beryllium utilized efficaciously for a scope of municipality purposes, said Shailesh Kumar, CEO (India Cluster), VA Tech WABAG Limited. “In my ain office, for instance, we run arsenic a water-positive building, drafting nary h2o from outer sources — home needs are met done recycled water, portion rainwater is recharged into the ground,” helium said.
Calling for greater nationalist awareness, amended standards, and wider acceptance of reuse, Mr. Shailesh said operation was different captious country wherever treated wastewater should beryllium prioritised done regularisation and enforcement, peculiarly for roadworks and ample infrastructure projects.
Vidhyalakshmi Sivakumar, prof and subordinate dean, Department of Civil Engineering, SIMATS, spoke connected the relation universities could play beyond teaching. Large campuses relation arsenic tiny cities, she said, consuming water, generating wastewater, and managing reuse connected site.
She cited the illustration of an on-campus sewage attraction works astatine SIMATS, designed and implemented by students and faculty, which reduced freshwater depletion by astir 20%, offering some applicable learning and a exemplary that cities could replicate.
Rainwater conservation could not beryllium the work of authorities agencies alone, said Beemaraja Sakthivel, director, Stone Hands Project Consultancy. Rooftops, parks, playgrounds, and different unfastened spaces needed to beryllium utilized to store rainwater and recharge aquifers.
Chennai’s h2o stress, Mr. Sakthivel said, was not owed to deficiency of rainfall but mediocre conservation. The metropolis receives an mean of 1,250 mm of rainfall annually, amounting to 50–60 1000 cardinal cubic feet (TMC) of water, portion its yearly request is lone astir 12 TMC. Floods followed by droughts were the effect of rainwater being drained distant alternatively of being stored oregon utilized to recharge groundwater, helium said.
Mr. Sakthivel said the dispersed of impermeable surfaces had reduced cities’ quality to sorb aggravated rainfall. With astir municipality areas present covered by concrete, approaches specified arsenic the Sponge City model, which focused connected capturing rainfall wherever it falls done retention and recharge, were becoming progressively necessary.
The league was moderated by K. Lakshmi, Deputy Editor, The Hindu.
