Column

Last year recycled water made its debut in space. It was inevitable. Now, it is inevitable on earth.

Pressure is building on water resources, both on the surface and underground. Last week, we’d discussed how expensive water is in Bangalore. The city’s supply lines are drying up and Cauvery Stage IV and Phase 2 is the last project to harness Cauvery water. Further supply should come either from Netravathi or Tungabhadra — both over 200 km away.

When the International Space Station’s recycling water plant went online, the mission’s flight engineer Mike Barratt had this to say, “This has been the stuff of science fiction. Everybody’s talked about recycling water in a closed loop system, but nobody’s ever done it before. Here we are today with the first round of recycled water.”

Down Under, major towns have huge projects for supplying recycled water, almost perfecting the art of recycling water. Across greater Sydney, about 16 recycled water schemes recycle around 25 billion litres of treated wastewater each year. Melbourne is not far behind. Reuse is about utilising water that would otherwise be wasted — wastewater, stormwater, rainwater, and greywater.
In that country, recycled water is classified according to its quality and range of uses. Class A recycled water has the widest range of uses including residential garden watering, toilet flushing, process/cooling water for industry, irrigation of municipal parks and sports grounds.

Class B is for irrigation of dairy cattle grazing fodder, livestock drinking water and closed industrial systems. Class C recycled water is water restricted irrigation of specific crops and Class D is for non-food crops. In Bangalore we have had some lip service and a few regular announcements made with no ground work. There were talks of having dual water supply to new BDA layouts. That is a faraway dream.

Recycled water is being used at Namma Metro project sites. In October, BWSSB minister Katta Subramanya Naiduhad announced that “recycled water is being sold at Rs16 per cubic litre. This will be brought down to Rs5per cubic litre in future. Twenty filling points and an equal number of storage tanks will be set up.”The minister had said then that tenders would be called for production of recycled water in three months and water made available within 18 months. A sum of Rs1,000 crore has been set aside for implementation of the project. When the project is completed, it would be made mandatory to use recycled water for purposes other than cooking and drinking,” he had declared.
This is not enough Mr Naidu. The government should come up with a major plan to lay separate pipelines for recycled water. Let us be the first city in India to have dual water supply.