India's 1st and largest PPP on waste water reuse completed in record time during pandemic; bags FICCI Water Award 2020

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 25 (ANI/PNN): Since our ancient times, India has been known as the land of 'Sujalam and Sufalam'. The various rivers worshipped as deities have ensured that Indians remain water secure. However, rising urban population and growing industrialisation have taken a toll on water resources and rivers once worshipped have turned into sewage canals.
This demanded a fresher outlook towards the overall management of the Urban Water Cycle. An integrated approach comprising of Water Supply and Sewage Treatment with Reuse is the only solution to this crisis.
The thumb-rule is 80 per cent of potable water supplied to a city returns as sewage. Our towns generate over 61,000 MLD of sewage with only 30 per cent sewage treatment capacity available in cities and 3 per cent in small towns. This untreated sewage is a hazard to socio-environmental health.
Our cities mostly pollute the very water source they depend on with sewage generated. We lack STPs in place and for the ones we have, we do not have suitable maintenance budgets.
Nagpur was no different. With a 27-lakh population, consuming 700 MLD of fresh water daily roughly 80 per cent translating to ~550 MLD converted in sewage. A solution to this issue was treating sewage and REUSING it.
Nagpur's sewage flowed through three rivers cum drains viz. Pivali, Pohra and Nag. This polluted the famous Gosikhurd Dam, a source of fresh water and irrigation. The Hon'ble High Court on a petition ordered action to bridge the gap of sewage generation and treatment.
For Nagpur Municipal Corporation, it was financially impossible to meet this requirement and took a PPP route focusing on the Reuse of the treated sewage water.
It involved the collection of 200 MLD of sewage from rivers and augmenting a 100 MLD STP to 200 MLD with the Reuse of treated water as the final goal. The project was structured on a PPP model with Vishvaraj Environment Pvt. Ltd. selected through a competitive bidding process for 30 years.
The entire project was built though 100 percent private investment making it the largest and the first STP on the PPP model.
The real innovation was the Reuse of this sewage-treated water by the industry. MAHAGENCO, the state power generation utility agreed to use treated sewage at its two power plants.
Alongside a path-breaking policy by the Ministry of Power made it mandatory for power plants across India to use treated sewage water, if available within a 50 km radius. The cost is allowed as a pass-through tariff by power plants making it financially sustainable.
Work on a 200 MLD STP and Reuse phase commenced in June 2018, withMahaGenCogoing to use 190 MLD for its Khaparkheda and Koradi plants. The challenge involved laying a 1,500 mm dia pipeline through dense urban areas and crossing railway lines at six locations.
The project was completed 9 months ahead of its designated construction period of two years that too in the peak pandemic situation.
The project proved to be a winner for everyone - the municipality got a facility, the city got its
future freshwater needs taken care of for 35 years and the power plants secured water supply. Citizens benefitted as sewage are treated and freshwater freed up.
For the remarkable execution of this path-breaking project, Vishvaraj Environment bagged the first prize at the FICCI water award 2020 held virtually on 16 February 2021.
Arun Lakhani, CMD, Vishvaraj Environment expressed his views on the Reuse philosophy saying, "Water Sustainability is a term which should remind us all, how inadequately we are coping with these subjects. This is slowly becoming critical for humanity.
The Nagpur Reuse Project was conceptualized as keeping reuse as a central theme. The potential for reuse at Thermal Power Plants is eight billion litres per day initially. Indian cities are growing rapidly and the water supply to the cities already scarce.
The reuse initiative would release freshwater for eight crore people. Our cities will have to look for newer avenues for water security and the Nagpur reuse model can act as a torchbearer for the cities.
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