Recycling Water

IGBC had indicated (see post at http://principalsecretarysblog.blogspot.in/2017/02/silver-green-new-town.html ) that New Town must reduce water use. To that end, we decided in a meeting held with PHE engineers today morning to quantify the amount of water available after treatment from the Sewage Treatment Plants in Action Area IIB and IIC along with the BOD content. As per environmental norms, the BOD must be less than 30 mg/L at the output, but engineers said they actually reduce to even lower levels, often as low as 10-15 mg/L. Forest Department officers were advised to send their tankers that water roadside plants to the STPs and thus reduce use of costly potable water. In Nabadiganta too, I proposed to JUSCO - the PPP company that is responsible for water supply and sewage treatment for Sector 5 - to make available the output water for watering trees in the new ring road and elsewhere. In their letter dated 20.2.2017 that I received today, JUSCO has said that they have finalised the mechanism for loading tankers with treated waste water which, to quote them "is not fit for consumption of humans and livestocks and shall strictly be used for watering gardens or cleaning roads only". I advised the engineers at NDITA to tie up with JUSCO and the agency that waters the roadside greens.

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Clippings:

(Above and Below): Times of India
dt 21 Feb 2017