Rs.20cr can give 200 water treatment plants

Rs.20cr can give 200 water treatment plants

The Brihanmumbai municipal corporation (BMC) could might as well have been wearing blinkers. While experts question the effectiveness of seeding clouds to induce rainfall, a former deputy mayor, along with an NGO, has enough proof that civic officials could have put the Rs20-crore fund for the experiment to better use had they only looked for another option, like a sewage treatment plant (STP). Former deputy mayor Vinod Ghedia (in pic) and 21 others from Borivli Sanskritik Kendra, an NGO, have set up an STP in Borivli at just Rs10 lakh. The low-cost plant, constructed on a 500sqft plot, can treat 30,000 litres of waste water a day, which can be used for non-potable purposes. Roughly, 60%-65% of water supplied by the BMC is used for non-potable purposes like gardening and washing car. Taking the STP as a touchstone, the BMC could have built 200 such plants, which would make available about 6 MLD (million litres per day) of water — which is more than the 2-3 MLD of water stock in 1,572 wells in Mumbai — with the money it plans to pump into its cloud seeding project. The NGO has been using the treated water to convert a six-acre BMC plot, located along Devidas Marg in Borivli (W), into a garden with around 600 trees bearing flowers and fruits. The work on the STP began in May last year. “The electro-process plant is cheap and occupies less space. Its treatment capacity can be enhanced depending on the requirement. With only a small amount of current required to treat water, electricity bills too don’t pinch pockets,” Ghedia says with a smile. A senior civic official agrees that it is feasible to develop STPs with the Rs20-crore budget. Backing the installation of low-cost water conservation models, civic activists say they are long-term solutions to the city’s water woes. “You cannot carry out cloud seeding every year if there are no rains. Alternatively, STPs offer a permanent solution to our problems,” explains Shyama Kulkarni, trustee of NGO AGNI. Civic authorities from the water department remained unavailable for their comments.