Minister of State for the Ministry of
Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Y.S. Chowdary, today chaired
the inaugural session of the Review and Planning Meeting on the completion of 4
years of the € 9 million Indo-EU ‘Water4crops’ project, to be held in New Delhi from 15th – 17th of June, 2016. The
project has been co-funded by Government of India through the
Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
under the Ministry of Science & Technology and the European Union. The project integrates bio-treated
wastewater reuse with enhanced water-use efficiency to support
the Green Economy in EU and India.
The rationale behind developing
Decentralized Wastewater Treatment (DWT) is
water scarcity. On one hand, direct use of wastewater in
agriculture is not good for farmers and consumers and on the other, disposal of
untreated wastewater pollutes the environment. Moreover,
all localities do not have sewage treatment plants. Hence
the ‘Water4Crops’ project provides an
opportunity to efficiently utilize low-quality industrial,
domestic and municipal wastewater by facilitating the development of various
technologies for wastewater treatment at the local scale and its feasible use
in agriculture.
The project has
shown remarkable success by aiding the construction of wetlands containing
plant species such as Canna indica, lemon grass (Cymbopogon), napier (Pennisetum
perpureum X Pennisetum americarnum), para grass
(Urochloa mutica), typha (Typha latifolia), water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and a weed species
Agaratum Conyzoides. These plant species absorb harmful
toxins as well as nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, inter alia,
that contaminate the water due to overuse of chemical fertilizers in the agriculture
sector.
Based on pilot studies at ICRISAT
headquarters in Hyderabad and elsewhere, several watersheds have been supported
under the Government of Karnataka’s Bhoo Samrudhi and
Rythu Kosam programmes and by some Corporates under their Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) programmes. The
Decentralized Wastewater Treatment (DWT) approach
is being implemented and popularized at 28 sites in the Indian states of
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka.
As a result of this initiative, the
chemical and biological oxygen demand in wastewaters has
reduced by 30-92%. Moreover, crop yield
evaluations have shown increased yields of the order of 14 to 40%
for crops like okra, brinjal and chilly irrigated with treated
wastewater as compared to fresh water. In
addition to increased yields, the secondary treatment of waste water for
agriculture leads to more tertiary-treated potable water
being available for domestic use.
Shri Y.S. Chowdary, speaking at the inaugural session, noted that water is
clearly a worldwide challenge today and if a Third World War ever happens, it
would be for water. Hence, its management requires new
approaches and technologies. He highlighted the importance
of treated wastewater for addressing the issues of
sanitation and health in rural areas as well as meeting the demand of scarce
water resources for agriculture to improve the livelihoods. The challenge is to make the project scalable to a higher
level across the country. Efforts are going on for
collaborating with State Governments, Industry Partners and International
Collaborators to achieve this goal, he added.
Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of
Biotechnology noted that the European Commission’s
Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and the Department of Biotechnology initiative has
promoted the sharing of research and technologies among
participating consortia in India and Europe for the benefit of the common
people. He further said that the ‘Water4Crops’ is one of the largest Indo-EU
collaborative projects in which the European Commission contributed €6 million through its ‘Water4Crops-EU’ project and a similar project, ‘Water4Crops-INDIA’,
was funded with €3 million by the Government of India.
Mr. Tomasz
Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India, said that this project is
a good example of how top-level
research organizations from several European countries have joined forces with their counterparts in India to develop concrete solutions
able to benefit both sides. We continue this
collaboration with India through the EU-India Water
Partnership, he added.
The EU Consortium includes 21 partners
from 8 Countries and the India-based consortium consists
of 11 research and development partners led by the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT). Other partners on
the Indian side are National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), MS Swaminathan Research Foundation
(MSSRF), The Energy and Resources
Institute (TERI) and Euro-India Research Centre (EIRC),
among others.
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