Sustainability

The National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) is a premier CSIR laboratory. On September 7th, NEERI held a brainstorming workshop entitled "Interface between water technology developers and other stakeholders”.  The purpose of the workshop was to engage better with other players involved with bringing scientific innovation in the water sector to reach large numbers of people who need the innovations.  Attendees included scientists from many CSIR laboratories involved with water research, senior central government officials from the Rural Water Supply Department and the Dept of Science and Technology, State government officials, representatives from leading corporate houses including Eureka Forbes and Unilever and NGOs.  

Water for Industry

• Indian farmers fight billionaire Mittal and Posco, a leading company in steel making, for water rights in Orissa

Drinking Water/Urban Water/Water Quality

• The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) loses money on half of water it supplies
• The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is paying a hefty price for supplying water to Mumbai with outstanding water supply dues upto Rs 3,065 crore
• 40% water is lost in leakages in Mumbai: The water level over the catchment area at 12.9 lakh ml, but the city still wrangling with water woes
• Poor access to safe and good quality drinking water: water contamination is an important public health concern in Bihar
• After several years of suffering, the villagers of Hebani Gram Panchayat in Mulbagal Taluk of Kolar have found a way to get safe drinking water by themselves
• 1650 water supply schemes planned for meeting the drinking water needs of people in rural areas in Madhya Pradesh
• Diarrhoea cases on the rise in Orissa
• Cholera incidence second highest in Kolkata

About CAT “MAR” (Multi Stage Aerobic Bio Reactor)

This reactor was developed with the aim to overcome the main problem associated with SBR, MBR & FABBR, i.e.,

• The plugging & clogging of filter and
• Wash out microbes from the reactor        

The historic UN General Assembly Resolution declaring Water and Sanitation as a Right, was passed on the 28th July 2010. 

What is surprising is the complete silence to this UN Resolution from some of the countries who have been traditional champions of human rights, in terms of celebrating it as a historic achievement in advocating a basic right to water and sanitation. Instead some of them went one step short of openly opposing and vetoing the UN Resolution and have heaped criticism on Bolivia for tabling this UN Resolution.

The South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN), a government led biennial convention held on a rotational basis in each country, is a platform for dialogue and influence created by the governments of South Asian Countries to review the progress made in the area of Sanitation.  The SACOSAN process would help to generate political will to narrow the gap in Sanitation access and usage.

The presentation deals with weathering, erosion and deposition of rocks -

• The process of breaking down and alteration of rocks and formation of new materials from them is known as weathering of rocks.
• The group of processes whereby the materials of the earth’s crust are moved from one place to another by running water (including rainfall), waves and current, glacier ice and wind is known as erosion.  
• The processes whereby the material being carried during the process of erosion is deposited either through physical processes (such as drop in the velocity of flowing water) or precipitation of dissolved material under a set of conditions for instance, the deposition of limestones from water rich in calcium carbonate is known as deposition.

These presentations by ACWADAM deal with the application of remote sensing and aerial photography techniques in groundwater management. Remote sensing is a technique by virtue of which information about an object, area or phenomenon is obtained with the help of a sensor on board a platform from distance without coming in contact with object, area or phenomenon.