Water quality data an important instrument for designing effective intervention for controlling and mitigating water pollution: Mr Rajeev Kumar Mital, DG, NMCG
Data on Water quality is an important instrument for designing effective interventions to control water pollution. Water quality data has played a vital role in designing various interventions under Namami Gange, one of the flagship programmes of Government of India, said Mr Rajeev Kumar Mital, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. He was delivering his special address at the Conference on Water Quality with the theme “Water Quality Management for Better Tomorrow” organised by Confederation of Indian industry at New Delhi today.
Speaking further on the various interventions by the Government to capture water quality data under the Namani Ganga project, Mr Mital informed that the first step was to establish a robust measuring and monitoring to measure the quality of the pollution in the river to derive meaningful inferences from this data. He further talked about one key development is PRAYAG (Platform for Real-time Analysis of Yamuna And Ganga), which collects and analyses data from sewage treatment plants (STPs) to enable timely and effective feedback to the operators as well as state governments for the corrective actions. The data is also published online to have public transparency.
All the above interventions have brought encouraging results, stated Mr Mital. The biggest indicator of improvement in the water quality of Ganga is the improvement in the biodiversity. The number of dolphins in Ganga have not only increased in the last 10 years but are also being cited at new places and moving to their old habitats. The bio monitoring in terms of the health of the river shows that population of many lower order species like turtles, oysters etc has also increased, stated Mr Mittal.
Mr Søren Nørrelund Kannik-Marquardsen, Minister Counsellor, Director of The Trade Council (South Asia) & Head of Trade, Economic & Commercial Affairs, New Delhi shared that Denmark and India are working closely in the area of water management and quality. Speaking further he shared that Denmark started its journey on water management long back and faced similar issues as India on water pollution. He emphasized Denmark’s success in reducing non-revenue water through measuring and monitoring, policies, infrastructure development, and smart water management practices.He pointed out the importance of ensuring 24/7 access to clean, pressurized drinking water, and how a holistic approach to water management—including real-time water quality testing and fixing polluted water sources—is crucial for both countries.
Mr Vishal Mehra, Strategic Business Unit Head of Water & Waste Solutions, Thermax Limited stressed that water quality is an issue of concern and necessitates a more holistic approach in tackling the issue. He emphasized the need for a paradigm shift in technology management, environmental monitoring and standards, enduring partnerships and active citizen engagement.
Dr Kapil Kumar Narula, CEO & Executive Director, CII-Water Institute emphasised that monitoring of water quality is a fundamental requirement and impacts our daily lives in unimaginable ways. He further stressed that real time water audits can add a lot more value in terms of how we can really make the plant very efficient and at the same time with a complete element of cost recovery. Emphasising on water Energy Nexus, he shared that cost is one indicator that needs attention and while we have multiple tariff agencies monitoring energy prices, there is an need for having a tariff agency at a national level.
New Delhi
08-10-2024