Waste Water… and Water Waste
This is blog is inspired by www.BlogAdda.com
But I have not written it over weekend, simply because I was researching and I needed to get my information right.
So lets start at the very beginning.. No we are not going to a place where water was common resource but to this event called the world water day. It’s on 22nd of march, which means this article is almost a week late and most of us are probably already looking at 1st April for the all fools day. this year the UN focuses on waste waters and the ways to reduce and reuse as over 80% of all the waste water from our homes, cities industries and agriculture flows back into nature polluting the environment and losing valuable nutrients and other recoverable materials.
The UN also has a goal 6 which is ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030. The target of this is is to halve the proportion of untreated waste water and increase water recycling and safe re-use of water.
Some facts from the UN
- Globally over 50% of the water waste generated by the society flows back into ecosystem without being treated or reused.
- 8 billion People use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene cause around 842,000 deaths each year.(data courtesy WHO/UNICEF)
After all this not really relevant data, let’s look at waste water, how many of you saw sewage, kitchen flow etc. etc. the imagery of cattle bathing in the river, or clothes being washed in the river. Well cattle bathing in the river is their right I do not what gives us the right to deprive them, but that is another war, not the agenda here. clothes being washed at the river side is an issue because the detergents that are marketed so heavily subtly ridiculing the traditional washing aids, contaminate water. I doubt if the policy makers also thought of the real pollutants from urban sewage, trucks being washed at the water bodies, industrial waste etc. etc. Contamination also occurs right up to the groundwater through septic tanks.
The theme this year is about reusing waste water
The Water Resource Department,(WRD) has come up with a sequential water reactor, the first level of treatment allows the water to be used to flush the toilets and to be used in gardens, while the second level allows the water to become drinkable. Government provides assistance to bring this into action; somehow housing societies are rather reluctant to pick this one.
The area that WRD is supposed to work on, is creating awareness on rainwater harvesting and assisting people to do so. the government gives a subsidy of 50.000 – 2 lakhs, to individuals or societies to achieve this. Every panchayat has an officer appointed by the government to do this, yet the citizens are totally unaware of this.
Ground water act calls for all wells to be registered, so do the water tankers. – Details are found on the web of WRD, printed copy of this act is not available, and translation to quite a few vernacular language is also required. The job and funds for doing so is available to the information department. The PWD takes on the cleaning of the existing wells,
The government has allotted funds for de-silting, and cleaning existing wells. The wells need to be registered to avail this. The directorate of health, which is in charge of checking the water quality, has required equipment, and a designated officer but is absolutely clueless on how to use the equipment as no one has demanded that it be done, the resources undergo disuse atrophy.
Know the department involved in water saga,
- Sewage and Infrastructural Development Corporation. Every state has one. In charge of the waste water treatment.
- Water resource department — water supply, rainwater harvest education, registration of wells, and water transport trucks.
- Directorate of Health Services water quality maintenance, and watch dog for waterborne diseases.
- PWD water cleaning and de-silting and maintenance of ground water
The information I have handed is also incomplete, since time is a constrain. But amazes me is when we buy a television we check out the service etc. etc. we do not take the trouble of seeing where our tax money is going. Nor do we take the responsibility for any of this when we buy our flat.
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/rooftop-rainwater-harvesting-gujarat-utthan
‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.
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