Sustainability can only be supported through reuse of wastewater.

Nagesh Veeturi

Executive Director - Civil, KEC International

 How do you view the water infrastructure developments in India?

Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was envisioned by our Hon'ble Prime Minister to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. The programme shall also implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through grey water management, water conservation and rainwater harvesting.

Significant progress has been made post its launch in 2019. As many as 50% of India's rural households have been covered so far, which is a remarkable achievement considering the various challenges faced due to the pandemic. Whilst the JJM has been making a swift progress in providing tapped water supply to households, the Amrut Mission is making equally good progress in urban areas, both in water and sewerage infrastructure development.

How is wastewater recycling segment evolving in the country in terms of new technologies?

Recycling and reuse of water have been in practice since shortly after the earth was formed, using natural methods, cycles, and filters. In recent decades, technology has been incorporated to speed up the natural processes to meet the ever-increasing demand for clean water. Natural processes in water reclamation are now typically employed in combination with above ground-engineered processes.

Reusing water results in savings of both resources and costs. However, appropriate monitoring of required quality of drinking water shall be in place. Reuse for non-potable applications has long been accepted and is a successful means to maintain freshwater supplies. But in some jurisdictions, it isn't enough. The need to augment water supplies with reuse of used water for potable water applications is growing and regulations are being developed. Existing technology can treat and reuse water safely.  Little by little, it is becoming more accepted by the public.

Today, we have the technology to safely recycle any wastewater back to the highest standards of use. This puts us in a position to put together various unit operations into flow sheets, which are tailored to the end-use of the recovered water.

Treatment processes in wastewater reclamation are employed either singly or in combination to achieve reclaimed water quality goals. Those processes include:

• Membrane Bioreactor Solutions: These combine biological, secondary, and tertiary wastewater treatment in one step and have been used not only to treat wastewater to high effluent quality standards for over 25 years but also represent a well-established means of enabling the reuse of wastewater.
• Ultrafiltration Solutions: Used for drinking water and tertiary treatment, UF systems are designed to operate downstream of a secondary wastewater treatment process, where no further biological treatment is necessary but where high-quality water is required. The system features a small footprint that can be placed virtually anywhere or can even be used to retrofit existing granular
  filter media.
• Reverse Osmosis Systems: RO systems are typically used after the water has been pre-treated to remove organics, suspended solids, and metals that may oxidize or precipitate on the membranes. Pre-treated water is sent to an RO for desalination for drinking water, water reuse, or as part of a system to produce ultrapure water. RO is selected for indirect and direct potable water reuse applications because it provides an excellent barrier to bacteria and pathogens and can remove pesticides, in addition to providing water with low TDS.
• Disinfection Technologies including UV/Ozone/Advanced Oxidation: These processes are used as a final step in water reuse applications to reduce TOC and destruct any remaining organics.
• Electrodialysis Reversal: This is an electrically driven membrane process that uses an electric voltage to draw ions through membranes. Because of the polarity reversal design, EDR is a self-cleaning, durable membrane system ideal for turbid wastewater. EDR technology achieves the highest water recovery for water-scarce areas.
• Thermal Evaporation and Crystallisation Systems: These systems are essential for achieving zero liquid discharge and recycling the last bit of wastewater. With any wastewater reuse system, there are often a few remaining wastewater streams too saturated for conventional physical/chemical and membrane technology. Evaporation and crystallisation reduce these last difficult wastewaters to dry solids, allowing for cost-effective disposal and squeezing out the last bit of clean water for maximum recycle
  and reuse.

Zero liquid discharge has become crucial for effluent treatment in the manufacturing industry. With a highly effective National Green Tribunal in the country, we can claim that this segment has evolved significantly, however with substantial room for improvement. 

Which are the key water and wastewater projects involved by the company?

KEC has successfully completed and commissioned 35 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) for BWSSB, Bangalore and 33 MLD STP for UUSIDP, Roorkee. These projects are designed and built with SBR technology. In the water sector, we are presently executing six large water pipeline projects in the state of Odisha, as part of JJM, comprising 8,000+ km of water pipelines, 330+ elevated storage reservoirs and nine water treatment plants. These projects are expected to touch lives of over 3.4 lakh households across the state. We have also successfully commissioned a project for UUSIDP, Roorkee. For KEC, this sector is one of our key focus areas and we look forward to being a significant player in this sector in the coming years.

What kind of opportunities do you visualise in future in the wastewater recycling?

With the kind of focus and importance being accorded to sustainable development, we envisage huge opportunities in this sector in the coming years. We believe that the demand arising out of the growing population and the sustainability can only be supported through reuse of wastewater. Interestingly, the tertiary treatment of domestic sewage for use in industries is being adopted in many cities. Going forward, we anticipate this to be a compulsive factor for all STPs. With the rate at which freshwater resources are getting depleted, it would not be a surprise when we shall be forced to use tertiary-treated water for drinking water purposes in future, like it is done in Singapore and some of the developed countries.

Water sustainability has been of prime importance in the country? What is the company's vision in water sustainability?

KEC appreciates the fact that water sustainability is the need of the hour and has embarked itself on an ambitious mission to conserve water in all areas of operations through its corporate ESG initiatives. We have a robust ESG committee working and monitoring our various sustainability initiatives planned. The water sustainability road map of the company entails reduction in water consumption intensity at all our manufacturing plants by 20% by FY26. For our sustained focus and efforts,  we have been recently recognised as one of India's Top 50 Most Sustainable Companies by Business World.

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