EU thumbs up to Pune firm's effective management plan

Arun Lakhani, CMD, Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd

PUNE: A city-based organisation's water management plan is among the four projects selected by the Centre and the European Union (EU) for study and implementation.

The city recently hosted a three-day international conference on 'Water Management & Waste Water Treatment'. The participants deliberated on acute water shortage and water management issues and delved on workable technologies for sewage treatment. The conference was arranged by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ecosan, and supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, and the EU.

City-based EcoSan Services Foundation's water management plan, 'NaWaTech', is one of the four projects selected. The project was showcased at Yashada last week.

The projects that were showcased at the conference were selected under the framework of the India-European Union Science & Technology research and innovation project in water technology and management.

"With more people migrating to cities, water resources are dwindling. It has become mandatory to go for waste water treatment. We have to look at shifting from the conventional approach," said Girish Bapat, the city's guardian minister.

"India pumps out almost 80% sewage of the total water supplied. We can treat 60% of this. This water can be used for construction, gardening, etc," said Arun Lakhani, managing director of Vishvaraj Infrastructure, India, which has implemented the 24x7 water scheme in Nagpur using a public private partnership model.

The four projects NaWaTech, Eco India, Swings and Saraswati focus on various water treatment and management technologies developed and implemented by research institutes. The projects are jointly funded by DST-GOI and the European Commission. They were selected on the basis of minimum maintenance, low energy consumption, large scope to scale up and cost effectiveness.

"For the projects, Rs 16mn funding has been provided by DST and EU. Both Indian and European consortiums will work on these projects to assess and enhance the potential of natural and technical water treatment systems to suit local conditions," said Arvind Kumar, scientist-E of the International Multilateral and Regional Cooperation department, in DST-GOI.

NaWaTech is a three-year collaborative project. It works under a consortium of seven European organizations and seven Indian members, which includes the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). "NaWaTech is based on optimized use of surface water supply, rain water, storm water as well as grey water," said DB Panse, director Ecosan Services Foundation.

Mangesh Dighe, head of environment cell of PMC, said, "One system has been installed at the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran office in Pune. The water will supplied to Indradhanushya centre, Sachin Tendulkar Park and a public toilet near Ambil odha."

This News is Originally Posted on TIME OF INDIA