Innovations in Water & Sanitation

2nd Nation Water & Sanitation Innovation Summit

The scale of India’s water crisis can be inferred from the fact that nearly 600 million in the country faces high-to-extreme water stress. However, to curb these woes, the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, launched various schemes and programmes like Jal Jeevan Mission that aims to achieve its goal of ‘Har Ghar Jal’. Addressing such transformative moves and effective solutions to India’s water issues, Elets Technomedia in association with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, National Mission for Clean Ganga and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), organised the 2nd Nation Water & Sanitation Innovation Summit, on March 18, 2021.

Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria graced the event with his presence as the Chief Guest. The Minister said, “With the growing population and industrial demands, the stress on water resources have significantly increased, this causes water shortage.” To curb the issues and improve water management in the country, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has rolled out various schemes and programmes like river revival projects, Catch The Rain campaign, National Water Mission, Atal Bhujal Yojana, and more. Further, the Minister announced that the Ministry of Jal Shakti had decided to launch the second edition of Jal Shakti Mission on World Water Day 2021, on March 22, to sensitise more and more people on water conservation. While concluding his address, he launched the eGov magazine’s special issue on ‘Innovations in Water and Sanitation’.

2nd Nation Water & Sanitation Innovation Summit

Dr Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative-India, JICA lauded the Jal Jeevan Mission. He mentioned the challenges that India is facing in terms of water management and how the mission is posing a corrective measure with regard to drinking water management and providing safe and clean drinking water to every household.

H.E. Dr Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel to India spoke on India-Israel’s bilateral relations, especially in terms of water management. He highlighted how Israel, despite being a desert country, has overcome its water problems with effective management techniques, technology tools and people’s participation. He also mentioned that Israel had invited the Minister of Jal Shakti to witness their latest achievements in the water sector and to share Israel’s best practices. These best practices and knowledge sharing will help India in overcoming its water challenges, he added.

H.E. Mrs Santi Bai Hanoomanjee GCSK, High Commissioner of the Republic of Mauritius in India, addressed the inaugural session on ‘Water for All’ Sustaining the Future. Speaking on clean drinking water and sanitation, she admired the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) with the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission. Sharing her perspective on best practices for augmenting the water sector, she said, “We need proper water management, smart utilities, global best practices, and more such effective measures to curb water shortage issues.” Highlighting Mauritius’ approach, she said “Making Mauritius a water resilient nation is our prime focus. We’re working to achieve a sustainable water supply… Our government has given certain exemptions on water charges to ensure water supply to the poor families, especially in the dry season.”

H.E. Freddy Svane, Ambassador of Denmark to India, said, “We are working to share our best practices, technology approach, and subject knowledge on sustainable water management with India and work together to resolve India’s water issues.” On the role of Denmark to aid India’s water sector, he mentioned, “Denmark is bringing technological interventions to India to reduce non-revenue water which is a major issue contributing to the water crisis in the country.” Further, he pointed out that cleaning of Ganga and Yamuna is of utmost importance. For this, community mobilisation is the key.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, National Mission For Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, said, “We must look at the water issue with a holistic approach including rainwater harvesting, clean drinking water supply, river cleaning, etc. We need to work on integrated water management.” Addressing the NMCG framework he said, “We’re trying to develop a framework under NMCG where we focus on quality & quantity of water. However, a major challenge is treating wastewater.”

Pointing out the fact that India uses 18 per cent of the global groundwater, Mishra called it a ‘serious situation’. He said that technology-based interventions are being put to use for aquifer mapping under the Atal Bhujal Yojana. This will aid the authorities in monitoring and tracking the groundwater. Concluding his address he spoke on the importance of people’s participation.

Sustainable Water Management, Conservation & Rejuvenation

Addressing the panel discussion, Ashok Kumar Singh, Executive Director (Projects), NMCG, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, spoke on the birth of the Namami Gange to revive the Ganga river and the challenges faced while executing the projects. He called Non-revenue water (NRW) a “major challenge” and cited learning examples from Japan where NRW is hardly two to three per cent.

On the condition of Rajasthan, especially in terms of water availability, Naveen Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Water Resources, Indira Gandhi Canal, Agriculture Command Area Development and Water Utility, Government of Rajasthan, said, “Half of our surface water comes from inter-state agreements. This makes our water security vulnerable.” He highlighted ways and measures that the state government is taking to reduce water demands, improve conservation and induce sustainability in water management. For conserving water, the government has decided that the irrigation will be through pressurised piped water only and not through open source or flowing water, he added.

G C Pati, Chairman, Central Ground, Water Board (CGWB), Government of India, spoke on how groundwater caters to most water needs in the country. Emphasising the need to take corrective measures for water management, he said, “We provide design-based solutions, new technologies and more solutions to states to augment their water resources… We will be taking up pilot projects in Rajasthan and Haryana to improve water scenario with an approach to induce sustainable management of water resources.”

Nicolas Osbert, Chief-Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), UNICEF India, said, “India extract more groundwater than China and USA combined. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look for alternate water resources and focus on recharging aquifers.” On probable solutions, he said that there is a need to work at the grassroots level to build capacity for water management. Also, community mobilisation towards water conservation and awareness campaigns to bring in behavioural change among people is the need of the hour.

R P Singh, Executive Director (HSSE), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) spoke about BPCL’s efforts towards water conservation and improved wastewater management to fulfil their water demands efficiently. He said, “BPCL is working on 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to help conserve water. We are reusing water to the maximum possible to reduce freshwater use significantly.”

Rachid Chrifi, Area Sales Manager, Otto Graf Gmbh, Germany, showed an industrial presentation and spoke about measures Graf is adopting including rainwater harvesting, stormwater management, wastewater treatment, and more to conserve water.

Innovation and Technology in Water & Sanitation

In the second panel discussion, Rohit Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Government of Rajasthan said, “We have done digital sanitation mapping of 10,000 villages.” Such a move plays a significant role in augmenting wastewater management and improving sanitation in the area, Singh added.

Dr T Prabhushankar, Executive Director, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) said, “Chennai is the only city in the country to have two large scale desalination plants with 100 MLD capacity each… Chennai was the first city to mandate rainwater harvesting. Also, other initiatives we took include desalination, water recycling, etc.” Besides this, Chennai has been a pioneer in wastewater reuse.

Ankit Tulsyan, Project Manager (Water, Sanitation and Environment), Agence Francaise De Development (AFD), French Development Agency, showed an industrial presentation on how AFD is taking projects on water conservation and water management. While presenting, Tulsyan said, “We focus on building capacities and not just infrastructure.”

Jigar Desai, Founder and CTO, RyDOT InfoTech Pvt. Ltd., while showing the industrial presentation appreciated the efforts by the Ministry of Jal Shakti to improve the water scenario in the country. Addressing the technology-driven solutions offered by RuDOT, he said, “We provide technology-based solutions to augment water supply and make water potable, scalable, interoperable, and enhance-able.”

Deliberating on the role of women in promoting sanitation, Dr Maneesha V Ramesh, Dean, UNESCO Chair on Experimental Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development, Amrita University, said, “We trained women to build toilets and we built nearly 4000 toilets to help achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.”

Ensuring Universal Water Access

Addressing the panel, Avinash Mishra, Adviser, (Water, Land Resources, Tourism), NITI Aayog, Government of India, gave an account of tap water connections after the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission, saying, “After the launch of Jal Jeevan Mission, the tap water connections to households have risen from 18 per cent to 36 per cent.” Appreciating Swachh Bharat Mission, a transformational move by the Government of India to augment solid & liquid waste management in the country, Mishra said, “The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan brought in a big change in solid and liquid waste management. Also, it augmented sanitation big time.”

Bhopal Singh, Director General, National Water Development Agency (NWDA), commenced his address by sharing insights on the river interlinking projects taken up by NWDA. He said, “We’re dealing with interlinking of rivers. Under this, we transfer water from water surplus basins to water-deficient basins. We are implementing water-saving measures to ensure judicious use of water and maximum conservation.” Citing an example of the Ken-Betwa link, he highlighted that “almost 50 per cent of the project area is under micro-irrigation and more such water-saving projects are being implemented in the country in different areas.”

Dr BRK Pillai, Commissioner, (CAD and Water Management), Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, mentioned that there are various challenges to reaching universal water access. Addressing these he said, “There are challenges in long- distance transfer of water to fulfil the growing water demands as the supply gets consumed and does not reach the far areas where the need is more. Also, we need to strengthen and improve our distribution network. The next challenge is source management. These three areas are the ones where India’s water sector faces most challenges.” Speaking on corrective measures, he said, “There is a need for a comprehensive approach to augment the water sector. For this, we need to focus on both demand-side and supply-side management. As of yet, we have been more focusing on supply-side management, however, we need to shift the focus to demand-side as well.”

Remya Mohan, Collector and District Magistrate, Rajkot, Government of Gujarat, spoke on the measures the Government of Gujarat is taking to ensure basic facilities and water supply to the people. She mentioned, “There is a scheme in Gujarat under which every area where there is a human settlement, all the basic services along with clean and safe drinking water will be provided.” Addressing the move to provide tap water connections to people, she said, “Nearly 93 per cent of the rural households have been provided with tap water connections under the Har Ghar Jal programme.”

Dr Adarsh Singh, District Magistrate, Barabanki, Government of Uttar Pradesh, commenced his address with a brief on Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh. He mentioned the rejuvenation projects carried in different segments of a 170 km long river. “The river rejuvenation projects posed a challenge for us as it coincided with the nationwide lockdowns announced by the Centre due to the COVID pandemic.” Further, he appreciated the Centre’s ‘Har Ghar Jal’ scheme under which each and every household will be provided safe and clean tap water connections and mentioned how Barabanki district authorities are carrying forward the scheme.

Girraj Goyal, Director, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, highlighted that reduction in the cost of solar power can be a boon to augment the water sector in India. He said, “A major challenge that we face in managing the water distribution is water losses. So, if we utilise solar-powered pumps, especially in remote areas it will reduce our cost dramatically and will help in effective water management. With solar power, water can only be extracted 12 hours a day which can further be restricted to specific time limits considering the needs and requirements of the people in a particular area. However, the only challenge is establishing solar-powered pumps and other required infrastructure.

Deep Kumar Kapoor, General Manager (Sustainability), State Bank of India, mentioned that through SBI Foundation, the Bank is taking up various CSR activities focussing on the Sustainable Development Goal 6 – Ensuring Safe Water and Sanitation for All. Speaking on various projects by SBI, he said, “We are working on Jal Dhara project in Uttarakhand wherein we are rejuvenating spring waters. This has benefited many villages in the state. Almost 500 households have reaped the benefits of the four springs that SBI Foundation has rejuvenated as of yet, he added.

Smart Water for Smart Cities

Addressing the summit on implementing smart technology interventions to augment water management in cities, Lalit Arora, TA, Smart City Faridabad, said, “We have recently installed the SCADA system and it is being monitored through our Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) to ensureconnectivity of water from the river Yamuna.” Adding on he said, “The Government of Haryana has recently launched Reuse of Treated Wastewater Policy. Due to this, we are able to bring down the use of freshwater.”

Deliberating on the water scenario in Uttarakhand, Dr Ashish Kumar Srivastava, CEO, Dehradun Smart City Ltd, said, “Distribution of water is not equitable, so poor and vulnerable groups frequently suffer from water shortage.” Addressing corrective measures that the authorities are implementing in Uttarakhand, he mentioned, “To improve the water situation, we have to work at the city level, neighbourhood level and household level. To improve the water situation at the neighbourhood level we need to implement the SCADA system. At the household level, we need to improve metering.” Besides this, he mentioned innovative initiatives taken to aid people suffering from water shortage, “we have installed water ATMs through which people can get high-quality water in a rupee,” he added.

Dr Nawal Kishor Choudhary, Collector and District Magistrate, Gopalganj, Bihar, addressed the summit on augmenting surface water management. He highlighted, “The Government of Bihar started Jal Jeevan Hariyali Mission to revive and rejuvenate public water bodies like ponds, wells, etc.” Deliberating on rainwater harvesting systems and conserving groundwater, he added, “We are focusing on improving rainwater harvesting systems and increasing plantations to ensure groundwater recharge. We have developed over 350 rainwater harvesting structures in government buildings and 1000 in private buildings with the PPP model.”

Philipp Wyrsch, Head of Urban Team, KFW Office New Delhi, brought out KfW’s perspective on the management of surface water and groundwater resources. “To augment supply-side management we need to look at measures like water body restoration, river cleaning, recycling & reusing water, etc..” he points out. Further, he spoke on how KFW provides solutions and technical assistance in various sectors like natural resource management, energy, waste management, sanitation, and more.

Addressing challenges of the future & the legal framework

Rajiv Yadav, Chairman, Brahmaputra Board, said, “We need to focus on having different water policies for different areas as we have areas suffering from a shortage of water and areas having plenty.” Addressing the importance of community mobilisation, he mentioned, “We cannot rely on the legal framework for waterbody recharge, it has to be a people’s movement. Government should extend incentives to people who conserve water, use it judiciously and promote and propagate the message of water conservation… We need to induce a behavioural change to support water conservation and water-saving among the school students to ensure water security in future.”

Speaking on his efforts to revive Isan river and augment water management in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh, Mahendra Bahadur Singh, District Magistrate, Mainpuri, Government of Uttar Pradesh, said, “We found a tributary of Isan river which we linked with the Ganga to ensure that the water in Isan river flows throughout the year. We are managing the check dams on the Isan river to control water levels in monsoon to prevent flooding.” Highlighting people’s support in rejuvenating Isan, he added, “In the coming few years, we aim to make Isan river clean and flowing year-long. We are being supported by the people to achieve this.”

Addressing the water situation in Afghanistan and sharing his international perspective for India’s water issues, Abdul Farhad Jailani, Counsellor Economic, Embassy of Afghanistan, New Delhi, said, “The Government of Afghanistan is taking various measures to augment water management to provide safe drinking water to all.” Speaking on an effective policy framework to strengthen the water sector in Afghanistan, he said, “We have a policy framework for capacity building in the water sector and to improve the overall operations of the water sector.”

Rishi Raj, Joint Magistrate, Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, added to the words of DM, Mainpuri on their efforts to revive the Isan river. He gave an account of the steep taken for river rejuvenation, corrective measures implemented for improving water management and spoke on various other water conservation projects aligning with Isan river rejuvenation. He mentioned, “We have developed dams and reservoirs to sustain water of Isan river throughout the year as it is a rain-fed river.”

Pratham Agrawal, Divisional Engineer, Solapur, Ministry of Railways, Government of India, chaired the entire session. In his address, he mentioned the initiates Railways is taking to augment water conservation. Also, he spoke on how Indian Railways is minimising the use of freshwater and focussing on reusing wastewater for non-potable uses. “We generally implement solutions to resolve a problem temporarily. Rather, we need to address water issues with a long-term solution,” Agrawal concluded his address on this note.

At the valediction of the 2nd National Water and Sanitation Innovation Summit, an award ceremony to appreciate the excellent work in the water sector was held.

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