Can Barapullah water be potable?

NEW DELHI: If Indian and Dutch scientists manage to crack this experiment, cities may be relieved of noxious fumes and the eyesore of sewage flowing through the drains. Their pilot is the

Barapullah

drain. Instead of trying the route of conventional sewage treatment plants, they will use bioreactors and algal treatment to purify the

water

.

The biotechnology department of

Delhi Development Authority

(

DDA

) and the Netherlands government are collaborating on the five-year project. Their research partners are

Indian Institute of Technology

(IIT) Delhi, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) at Nagpur.

According to professor T R Sreekrishnan, dean (student affairs) at IIT, Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUSHR) will try to make the drain water potable. The experiment will start with a temporary structure at Barapullah where samples will be collected regularly and assessed at the IIT laboratory. It aims to eventually come up with a large bioreactor that can treat 10,000 litres per day and can be redeveloped for other drains.

“We will focus on generating as much information as possible now for developing a large reactor. The idea is not to just treat conventional pollutants. Drain water also contains heavy metals and xenobiotic (like antibiotics) contaminants, which are very critical because of their toxicity. The processes we come up with should be able to clean those too,” added Sreekrishnan. The budget for the research project is Rs 23 crore for five years.

C R Babu, the professor emeritus of Delhi University who has vetted the project, said they would use an aerobic oxidation technology that uses microbes from the sewage itself to filter the water. Efforts are also on to develop an affordable membrane technology to filter the sludge that can be later used for bio-methanation. “They have to develop and test different indigenously made membranes and they will grow algae for treating heavy metals and other contaminants,” said Babu. The team may also develop wetlands to treat drain water.

Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan;

Bert Koenders

, the Dutch minister of foreign affairs; and LG Anil Baijal laid the foundation stone on Tuesday.