Implementation of effective wastewater management techniques is critical for ensuring water security in India: Shri Kaushal Kishore, MoS, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, GOI
“We are working on a mission to make India a Developed Nation by 2047 in which water conservation, ground water recharge, quality, awareness and equal access to all will play a critical role. Safe and adequate water will also facilitate India’s mission to improve the health of every citizen, and a collective action from all stakeholders and a “Jan Jal Andolan” to make India a water secured nation is the need of hour, said Mr Shri Kaushal Kishore, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Government of India. He was speaking the Expo cum conference on Water and Wastewater Management organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Pragati Maidan at New Delhi today.
We need to accelerate our efforts and make people aware of water related issues and the benefits of innovative technologies and the importance of recycle and reuse of the treated water for various uses such as irrigation and recharge of ground water etc,” he added.
Hon’ble Minister also released ‘Our Cup of Joy’, a compendium on good practices in water management by India Inc. The compendium highlights scalable and innovative initiatives taken by industry which will promote new thought on water use efficiency and management. He also stressed for disseminating information on water conservation and management efforts to every stakeholder in creating awareness on various facets of holistic water & wastewater management. According to him a shared endeavour to live in harmony with nature can transform the water management practices in the country.
Mr. Rajesh Sharma, Chairman, CII-National Committee on Water & Chairman & Managing Director, Ion Exchange (India) Ltd, emphasized on the need for new ways to better utilize its limited water resources. Improving water utilization efficiency among sectors along with water treatment and reuse of wastewater can effectively alleviate the gap between water shortage and water demand. Mr Sharma also stressed on the need to harness the potential of state-of-the-art technologies that are available today to get desired results. Most importantly, the players need to emphasize on the implementation of digital technologies. Sharing his optimism on the new technologies that are evolving everyday will help in reducing the cost of water treatment which is the need of the hour to tackle water related issues. “added Mr Sharma.
Dr Kapil Narula, Executive Director & CEO, CII Water Institute, opined that the process of improvement in industrial water use efficiency not only requires various industrial sectors to reduce their specific water consumption but also sharing of knowledge & good practices for replication in other industries. He suggested that, going forward, wastewater needs to be renamed as reused water. He also observed that water quality is the area which requires focussed attention, including, the issue of salt load generation resulting from high reuse & recycling of wastewater and its safe disposal. Hydrological cycle needs to be fully understood for developing a holistic approach.
About 200 delegates from industry, government, NGOs, RWAs, Academia, technology providers were present in the conference.
17th February 2023
New Delhi