Water is a source of life on this beautiful planet. The water resources on earth are limited. The population is growing at an alarming rate putting more pressure on our water resources.In 1950, the world had app 2.5 billion people and by 2015 the population had risen to app. 7 billion people. So, in the last 75 years, more than 4.5 billion people have been added, requiring 3 times more water for their sustenance. Apart from the drinking and sanitary needs, the growth in population has also increased the need for water for agriculture, industries etc. Thus, the quantum of water remained the same within our atmosphere, the need for water multiplied manifold, emerging as a crisis of shortage everywhere.Population Explosion and Resource CrisisThis crisis is going to compound as the population growth is estimated to reach an alarming level of over 9 billion by 2050. Future wars are thus going to be wars over water rather than territory. A situation has arisen that we have to have a serious look at the water needs of the growing population, control wastages and develop innovative methods to recycle water for reuse.Many intellectuals and companies in the world have been developing an array of technologies, to tackle the looming crisis at an industrial level. However, at the individual level there is hardly any effort to reduce and recycle water. Particularly in India, the population doesn't give any priority to water.On the contrary, every citizen expects to get free water for their use and misuse. With the growth of cities, migration from the villages had increased and people have started to live in better living conditions, with more accessibility o utilities in towns and cities.Water Consumption and Cost of WaterIn the past, the water usage per capita in villages was very low and was limited to bathing, cooking and sanitation and that too in smaller quantities compared to the habit of using running water to wash dishes, shaving beards, showering, washing clothes etc. There is more water wasted than used now a days. For example, in the cities, the municipalities are mandated to provide 150 litres per head per day. If we consider a family of four persons, the total water provided is 600 litres. However, for cooking and drinking purposes, hardly 20 litres is used and the balance quantity is consumed on washing, sanitation, personal hygiene etc. Thus, a family consumes 580 litres per day which ends up in sewages and wasted.From the municipality perspective, water is pumped from a reservoir into a filtration plant where water is purified and transferred to the households through pipelines. This exercise, involves cost of manpower, chemicals, filtration media, electric energy to pump, capital costs on laying of pipes, maintenance of plant and machinery and pipe lines.The water that is leaving the households then enters into a sewage system. The sewage water is then transferred to a Sewage treatment plant, where once again, the water is treated with chemicals, aerators, filters and then released into a nearby water body.Once again, there are costs involved in capital costs like sewage network, STPs, and maintenances costs in manpower, consumables, chemicals, electrical energy. When we look at this scenario, we realize that huge costs are incurred in the entire process and the costs are never passed onto a majority of the citizens due to political considerations and humanitarian considerations. This is not a sustainable model for water utility. For example, it costs app Rs 9.00 per KL to treat drinking water and a similar amount to treat sewage water. These costs are operating costs and capital costs and interest, depreciation and other costs there on are not considered here. So, if a household receives 600 litres of water for their daily use, the following are the expenses incurred.
(The rates considered are average approximations as the water treatment charges and the water charges levied vary from city to city, as there is no uniform tariff system prevalent in India)We can therefore see that there is always a shortfall of revenue and water management is a loss maker for the municipalities. They compensate the shortfall through increased taxation or reduced treatments and reduced maintenance.Case for At Source RecyclingNow, if we look at a different scenario, where we recycle the water at source which is our own house. We can assume that we consume 20per cent of water and release 80per cent of water as sewage.By adopting At Source recycling for reuse, we can recover more than 70per cent of the grey/black water from the house. So, when we look at the numbers, we arrive at the following:
This way, the municipality will be able to save costs of water management by de-centralizing the sewage treatment. On the Macro scale, if we consider a society having 50 households, then the savings translate to Rs 11 lakhs app. Per annum and for the citizens the savings are app. Rs. 5.2 lakhs per annum. Thus, the savings on water cost can offset the cost of equipment in a short period of time for the citizens and passing on the savings to the citizens by way of tax reduction is now possible for the municipalities. The suppliers, skilled and unskilled manpower get the benefit of employment and business turn over.This is a win-win scenario for every one.Insufficient availability of waterEven though, the municipalities are supposed to provide 100per cent water for residents, they have not been able to do so till now. On average, only 55per cent of the population has the facility of receiving potable water at their doorstep. Water availability is also dependent on factors like monsoon, pipeline network availability, load shedding etc. Even within the cities which are well managed, citizens do not receive the 150 litres per day but they receive app.65 to 70 litres per day per person. This leads to shortfall of water at the home and the shortage is covered by the tanker water, which is once again, pumped from aquifers, local water ponds, lakes or reservoirs.This leads to ground water depletion and drying of water bodies. Further, most of this water is either hard water or contaminated water that is not good for potable use. The tanker water also costs much more than the municipality water, as the tanker water is not subsidised.Benefit to the societyBy looking at the above figures, we have seen that by recycling water at source, we can reduce the daily fresh water consumption by almost 56per cent leaving only 44per cent of the fresh water to be supplied by the municipality. This is exactly equal to the short fall of water provided by the municipality (65 litres out of 150 litres is 44per cent).So, by adopting the recycle at source system, the citizens get their daily quota of 150 litres without touching the ground water and other water resources. This is a direct benefit to the society as a whole as we have been able to conserve 44per cent of the water hitherto wasted. The indirect benefit is that municipality supplies 44per cent less water means, 44per cent less cost to consumer and also sewage is reduced by 76per cent, meaning 76per cent less cost for treatment which is again a savings to the citizens by reduced taxation. Further, it may be noted that water from reservoirs, dams etc., is diverted for drinking water purposes and this diversion can be prevented if we adopt de-centralized water treatment and we can make more water available for agriculture.It must further be noted that , the STPs have been designed using decades old designs which require modification as the capacities for which these STPs have been designed are far less than the actual water received by them, leaving most of the sewage untreated and released into water bodies,. The sewage destroys the water bodies and we end up with rivers getting converted to sewage nallahs.By adopting recycling at source techniques, we can save our water bodies from sewage as reduced sewage inflow to the STPs, will ensure that the entire sewage is treated and cleaner water is released into water bodies. Also, there are many places where STPs are not available. Free sewage in those areas can be prevented and contamination of land and waterbodies can be prevented immediately.The small foot print Recycling systems are easy to install and easy to maintain and can be implemented immediately by a group of residents within their areas. The high Capital cost requirement, project cost over runs due to delays, long decision making and construction times etc., can easily be eliminated and public funds are safe guarded.Outcome of Recycling At Source systems
How this can be implementedIf the residents invest in their own premises, At Source Recycling Systems, then Municipalities should consider reduced water charges as well as reduction in taxation as the burden is shifted away from the municipalities to a major extent to provide sufficient quantity of quality water.Government agencies must provide subsidies to the residents to install such systems, as the benefit to the society at large and to the environment is immeasurably high.Bank and Financial institutions should provide low interest rate funds for such activities, as such systems add to core infrastructure facilities in a much better distributed fashion and will bring benefit to the society.Targeted programs to educate the citizens about the benefits of Recycling At Source must be prepared and propagated trough print and TV media.
