By setting up state-of-the-art Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) to make sure that every drop of waste water is treated and reused for purposes other than drinking, Surat is truly setting up an example on water management for every city and nation.
In order to meet the entire industrial requirement of water through treated or recycled water, Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), from March 2019, will be supplying 115 MLD treated water to industries within the city. In tertiary treatment plants at the Bamroli and Dindoli areas, the water will be treated from domestic sewerage water and then will be supplied to the textile factories in the Pandesara and Sachin industrial areas. “At present, we are supplying 40 MLD treated water to industries in Pandesara in the city. This is the largest capacity of tertiary water treatment in the country. In fact, Surat was the first city in the country to start selling recycled water to industries in 2014. Now, we are expanding the capacity to take it up to 115 MLD by March 2019,” M Thennarasan, Surat Municipal Commissioner added.
In order to create tertiary water treatment facilities in Surat, SMC has invested Rs 2.8 billion in it and charges industrial units Rs 23 per 1,000 litre of water.
Recycling technology
In order to promote the use of recycled water for non-drinking purposes and to reduce its dependency on groundwater, the civic body along with the state government plans to create an infrastructure for water management. “The civic body intends to go further and supply recycled water to industrial clusters like Hazira, outside the city as well,” said Thennarasan.
Fact check
As per Niti Aayog’s report, India is facing its worst water shortage in history as nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress and about 200,000 people die every year in the country because of inadequate access to safe water.
