Hyderabad: The EPTRI organized a ‘Workshop on Water and Wastewater Management and Sustainability’ in Hyderabad on 30th January 2018 at EPTRI.
The workshop comes in the background of Hyderabad being one of the most water stressed metro cities with insufficient waste treatment facilities, and the State Government’s desire to ensure sustainable growth for the city, improving water availability and public health. MWRD and their delegates shared their experiences and good practices related to all aspects of water resources management including the creation of sustainable solutions, efficiency, governance, management, etc.
The Kalyan Chakravarthy, I.A.S., D.G. EPTRI has expressed his view that Protection of lakes and wastewater management is gaining prominence in the era of sustainable development. However, urbanization has altered the lake ecosystem and wastewater management strategies in recent times. Hence rejuvenation of lakes and effluent treatment in Hyderabad is imperative.
He stressed on the inefficiency in operating the existing STPs in Gated communities within Hyderabad. Once these STPs are brought into operation the wastewater can be treated and recycled which in turn can be fully utilized as a resource for green belt development. There is an urgent need for skilled technicians in the waste management sector, which thereby generates employment in a large scale in this area. We have all the systems in place but we have to see its operation at micro and macro level. As part of Government of India’s, National Skill Development programme EPTRI is one of the institutes offering Green skill development programme (GSDP).
The EPTRI is a think tank and aspires to bring solutions to utilize wastewater instead of polluting water bodies and agricultural lands. D.G. also said that we have put up a proposal to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) worth Rs.1600 crore, out of which Rs.600 crore is requested as grant from GCF.
The Dr. Prakash Tata Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Director and Head of the Environmental Monitoring and Research Division, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago commented that India has best of the technology in the water and wastewater sector; but there is a need to improve implementation. MWRD in collaboration with EPTRI and NIRD can bring the best of existing technologies to the fore in Telangana. One of the major constraints in implementation of existing facilities is meagre wages to the technicians, which needs to be addressed.
The objective of having a long term vision for water sustainability is uppermost in the vision of the State of Telangana. EPTRI is working to formulate a cogent framework towards this end. It has also been spearheading efforts for obtaining grants from various national and international agencies for projects related to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Agriculture and allied sectors, Water and Wastewater are some of the key sectors and EPTRI is working diligently on projects in these areas.
The Dignitaries B. Kalyan Chakravarthy, IAS, Director General, EPTRI, Dr. Prakash Tata Retd. Assistant Director and Head of the Environmental Monitoring and Research Division, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), Dr. Roger Iliff, Mr. Syam Pappu, S.D. Mukherji, Retd, PCCF, Chief Advisor, EPTRI, C.M.Ashok Muni, Advisor, P.G. Sastry, Chief Advisor, EPTRI
