Chennai To Become First Indian City To Treat Sewage Water For Industrial Use & Save Fresh Water

More and more institutes/organisations in India are coming up with ways to ¡®go green¡¯ and reuse whatever resources they can, because as we know, earth is running out of them. Even the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal says that the Indian Railways plans to become the world¡¯s first ¡®100% green railways¡¯ in 10 years.

But sooner than that, just in about 10 more days, Chennai will become the first city in India to recycle sewage waste. It will also supply it for industrial purposes. A new treatment plant has almost been completely built in Kodungaiyur, and it is supposed to be completed by the first week of August.

As we know that the city has been battling water crisis for months now. The plant will recycle sewage water and supply it to industries hence ensuring that fresh drinking water is reserved mostly for residential use. According to the Metro Water Board, this will help ease the crisis to an extent.

Another sewage treatment plant, is under construction in Koyambedu, and will probably become operational in September. These two plants alone will be able to treat 90 million litres of sewage per day by employing the reverse osmosis technique.

This is what will be done

The water that is usually released into rivers after secondary treatment will now be sent to these new sewage treatment plants for another level. This water will then be fit for industrial use.

An official reportedly said, ¡°The plant in Kodungaiyur will initially treat 15 MLD, which will slowly be increased to 35 MLD, and then to its full capacity of 45 MLD. Industries will benefit from this project as they will get 50 MLD treated water.¡±

Martin Louis

¡°Once the plant is commissioned, the freshwater saved will be supplied to residential areas in Tiruvottiyur, Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Madhavaram and Manali in the North; and Chintadripet, Purasawalkam, Egmore, T Nagar, and Mambalam in the central part of the city."

¡°Now that Chembarambakkam reservoir has gone dry, it¡¯s water from the quarries that is being supplied to industries. Earlier, close to 30 MLD from the reservoir was supplied to industries in SIPCOT. We will be supplying treated water to six out of 27 industries in the Manali belt initially,¡± New Indian Express quotes the official as saying.

This means that the fresh water that was being supplied to the industries will now be directed for residential use.

This is a brilliant idea and shows that Chennai is not just dependent on other resources to battle the water crisis, it is trying to deal with it internally too!