The United Nations’ (UN) World Water Day is an annual event celebrated on March 22 as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for sustainable management of freshwater resources. Each year, the day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. In 2017 the theme is ‘Wastewater.’
Water quality in majority of rivers flowing in Odisha has been found to be polluted due to rapid industrialisation and waste water released from drainage systems in the urban areas. The pollution level is alarmingly above the danger mark in most of the places. The river water is polluted mostly with biochemical oxygen and Coliform bacteria.
Bhubaneswar’s increasing population growth has resulted in excessive wastewater generation and currently estimated at 180 million litres per day (MlD). The increased population and waste load, combined with the absence of a regular sewerage system, has led to untreated and semi-treated sewage, flowing into the city’s water bodies and creating unsanitary conditions.
The present drinking water sources of Bhubaneswar Municipal area includes surface sources (rivers) and ground water sources. The important rivers of the area are Mahanadi, Daya and Kuakhai. These rivers supply around 80 per cent of the total daily demand of potable water, while the balance is obtained from groundwater sources through production wells and tube wells. Many authorized and unauthorized slums exist in the area, which are fed from hand pump tube wells or stand posts provided by BMC.
Bhubaneswar is having a network of 10 major drains that are aligned from west to east and are situated in an arrayed layout (north to south) perpendicular to the Gangua Nallah. These major drains are maintained by the Water Resources Department (WRD) of Bhubaneswar. The storm water of Bhubaneswar City flows into these 10 drain channels. Drain No.1 opens to the Kuakhai and the remaining nine drain channels (No.2 to No.10) flow into the Gangua Nallah which in turn transports the river water and the pollution load to the river Daya. The minor drains comprise of secondary and tertiary drains. These drains essentially convey storm water runoff from the road surface, household roof drains and from the catchment area in undeveloped or partially developed portions of the city to the major drains.
In absence of a sewerage system, people are using septic tanks and soak pits. In most of the places sewage is discharged into open drains without any treatment, which is ultimately discharged to Gangua Nallah. Pipelines carrying drinking water are running close to drains and often dirty water is seeping into these supply lines. Water leakages are being one of the major issues which every town is facing. Water leakages occur due to aging of pipeline. Excavation across the road also causes pipe damage. leakages are hard to detect as they can be in the underground pipes. leaks are detected by the local people if it is visible.
The slow pace of replacing the leaking water pipelines by the Public Health Engineering Department has worsened the jaundice scenario in the city. Quality of ground water is also emerging as a major problem due to un-regulated urban waste disposal. Groundwater environment is extremely sensitive and once degraded would take hundreds of years to revive.
Odisha lags far behind in terms of access to toilet facilities. Major reason for perpetuation of diseases like diarrhoea and jaundice can be attributed to the non-availability of safe drinking water with poor sanitation facilities and practices. A majority of people in rural areas still depend on open water bodies i.e. river, stream and pond etc as source of drinking water. Mostly women and children are being engaged to fetch water for domestic consumption. The natural drinking water sources are getting polluted due to a number of reasons, including environmental and ecological, which affect the quality of drinking water. Very often, it has been reported that water borne diseases are a major cause of poor health of women and children in rural areas.
In order to avoid ill effects of water pollution on the human and animal health and agriculture, standards/rules/guidelines have been devised for discharge of effluents from industries and municipalities, quality of drinking water, irrigation water, criteria for aquatic life in fresh water by various authorities including central pollution control board (India), World Health Organisation (WHO), Indian Standard Institution, Indian Council of Medical Research, etc. The effective implementation of these rules, standards and guidelines, etc. will prevent water pollution in future.
The CPCB issued directions in April, 2015 to the State Pollution Control Board/Pollution Control Committees regarding setting up of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and utilisation of sewage generated in their respective States. Sanitation Safety Planning (SSP) is a step-by-step risk based approach to assist in the implementation of the 2006 WHO Guidelines for Safe Use of Wastewater, Excreta and Greywater. The approach can also be applied to all sanitary systems to ensure the system is managed to meet health objectives. The SSP approach requires identifying health risks in the sanitation system, implementing an improvement plan and conducting regular monitoring. SSP can be used at the planning stage for new schemes, and to improve the performance of existing systems.
A holistic approach to water and wastewater management is required to make the Smart City initiatives. By treating water and wastewater, we help protect fast depleting water resources and improve our quality of life. Hence choosing the right treatment with smart technologies to obtain potable drinking water and reusing wastewater is inevitable.
Therefore we need to improve the collection and treatment of wastewater and safely reuse it. Awareness must be created among people regarding present condition and upcoming water stress issues and the method to save water.
(Dr Praharaj teaches in Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)