The Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, New Delhi, has
entrusted NEERI to undertake a feasibility study on Artificial Groundwater Recharge
using treated municipal wastewater. Artificial Groundwater Recharge is a process of
augmenting the natural purification processes occurring within the soil
aquifer in the vadose zone. This treatment technique is known as Soil Aquifer
Treatment (SAT).
As a part of this study, NEERI is conducting a public consultation to gather
opinion on the concept of groundwater recharge with treated wastewater.
Kindly visit the link below to answer the survey questions. Your participation will be greatly appreciated and useful to determine further course of action in
going ahead with SAT or otherwise..
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MJMJRVT
Water Technology and Management Division
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute
Replies
Admirable step by the Government...
Dear Friends, my concern is based on case studies in Australia. Large part of the Australian continent is covered by desert. If you see the major cities, they are all along the coast and in south-eastern part of the continent. Australia has carried out experiments on groundwater recharge wells by constructing large diameter recharge wells. The concern and care taken during these experiments were enormous, targeted towards monitoring of the injected water quality and the aquifer water quality. It was observed that water recharging the aquifer, in natural condition, comes into equilibrium during its journey from surface through soil horizon to the hard rock in terms of temperature, pH, DO etc. Whereas, the injected water causes abnormal temperature anamoly, experiencing the dissolution in the hard rock. If the hard rock is limestone, imagine of the scenario; we will be stimulating cave formation that may lead to environmental catastrophe.
We are unable to maintain the quality of normal water supply; will we be able to do it during artificial recharging?
A cautious approach, giving an eye to geological and hydrogeological conditions is required. This is in no way criticising the efforts and new ideas. Let a healthy discussion prevail.
I second your views. India is in a better condition as far as water resources are concerned. Need is for management and to change the view that groundwater is an ever lasting resource. Pertaining to Madhya Pradesh, the geological formation of the state also favours rich groundwater resources; concern is about regulating its usage. Unfortunately in India we do not have a groundwater policy. If we can effectively reduce the quantity conversion of white water into black water, we may not need to inject treated wastewater into aquifers.
MADAN IYENGAR said:
Good point!
Ninad Bodhankar said:
This was a completely skewed survey. I would not call it public participation at all. There was next to nil information about the quantities they were planning, etc. Why not manage water effectively to begin with?
Personally i feel there is not much scarcity ...only that water management, distribution and judicious consumption could be one of the problems... pertaining to Bangalore i could say that their is rampant misuse of ground water for vehicle washing....imagine washing 500 buses or a lakh cars daily as one such instance...another is unmindful discharge of 25 lakh ltrs daily from a society without treatment into drain..well these probably give room for serious thinking on conservation of water
@ ninad..appreciate your views but without peoples participation any government across the globe cannot redress the shortage..it can only manage... the west too is in serious trouble as regards water..most of Singapore is surviving with recycled water..on comparison INDIA is far better in resources..but lacks management
well these are some of my thoughts
I think that it could be a solution to water scarcity in dry areas but there is always a need to maintain quality of source water for recharge to meet drinking water quality standards.
The questions to answer are many, but the pertinent is: Have we water treatment facility in all our cities in India? When we fail to answer this question, why we need to go in for this new technology. This must be an idea from the brain of a bureaucrat straight from the west, imposed upon the technocrats. Please stand up against it, and save tax payers money.
participated, justified and put forward views
I think this is a very bad idea especially in India where we cannot afford to remove POPs while treating wastewater. Thinking 50 years ahead into the future, remediating these POPs from groundwater to make it potable is a big engineering headache not to mention very, very expensive.
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