Agra drinks the sewage of Delhi; and Allahabad consumes the sewage of both Delhi and Agra!

Dr. Soli Arcievala, who studied environmental engineering at Harvard in the 1950's, makes some startling statements at the last meeting

All those who believe that the dire prediction of water shortage is just plain talk, will have to think again. For, according to one of India.s seniormost experts on the subject, the day is not far when only 50% of the water available on tap would be pure water and the rest, treated (or even untreated) sewage.

Making this startling statement at the last meeting, Dr. Soli Arcievala, who returned to India after studying environmental engineering at Harvard University in the 1950.s, shocked his audience by saying that a lot of uncontrolled reuse of waste water was going on in India.

"We discharge partially treated sewage, or sewage that is half-treated, into our rivers and forget it. Once it's put in a river. the river keeps flowing . on to the next town which takes the water, gives it some treatment and supplies it as drinking water.

"This is exactly what happens. People drink it because they are not aware that all water supplied is just dilute and disinfected sewage.

"Agra drinks the sewage of Delhi, and Allahabad drinks the sewage of both Delhi and Agra. This is a psychosocio- economic problem. We do much reuse in this uncontrolled way and it will only get worse as the population increases".

Mr. Arcievala, who was speaking on "Waste water management by reuse", warned that unless the people were careful, the shortage of water would become an unbearable problem for the entire mankind.

Earlier, Roda Billimoria, who introduced him, said that Mr. Arcievala was a member of the Rotary Club of Bombay Hills South. He had returned from Harvard because he wanted to do something serious. A man far ahead of his times, he had graduated in environmental engineering and introduced the subject at the V.J.T.I., which he later headed.

He had undertaken several projects in municipal and industrial waste treatment in India and in the Middle East. He had written several books which were translated into many languages.

Appointed consultant to the UN and the WHO in the 1970.s, he spent many years in Copenhagen and in Turkey.

In 1998, he became the first Indian to be awarded membership of the prestigious Society of the Civil Engineers of the USA. His citation commended him for being "a noted environmental engineer, professor, international consultant with a distinguished career in the shaping of environmental protection activities in the developing countries of the Middle East, India and South Asia".

'Tertiary Treatment' To Toillet Waters Makes It Fit For Reuse

Mr. Arcievala started by tracing the beginning of waste water reuse in the 19th century, when it was diverted into fields for agricultural purposes. This system, which he called a "poor quality disposal", had persisted for more than a century and a quarter.

"We are still struggling with disposal in agriculture. This is the sad part of the story. However, since the 1960.s, reuse came in and industry began to benefit from reuse of waste water. Now, as things have gone from bad to worse, reuse is also being done for public water supplies".

Industrial reuse first started in Bombay.s textile industry in 1963. The very first was the Tata Mill. Later, the Mill Owners. Association also got involved.

A survey of 22 mills had shown that 15 to 20% of water could be saved by reusing some waste water directly (without any treatment) in other processes where quality was not important. It was a simple case of idhar ka udhar (taking from one place and putting it elsewhere), wherever suitable.

With the advent of Nariman Point in the 1960.s, buildings such as Air India, Shipping Corporation and Oberoi Hotels put up centralised airconditioning plants which needed cooling towers; these needed water which BMC could not provide.

The use of sea water was debated, but it had to be ruled out because it required special metals which could not be imported in those days.

It was then, Mr. Arcievala said, that "we came to the fore and said we will treat the sewage of the building and make it fit for reuse. And that's what we did, by giving 'tertiary treatment' to toilet waters to make it fit for reuse".

Soon, 20 to 30 such plants came up all over India, including in some five-star hotels (the Taj Mahal Hotel among them); the operating cost of Rs. 5 to Rs. 8 per 1,000 litres made it cheaper than municipal water and more assured . users were sure that if not water, they would at least get waste water.

Mr. Arcievala said another challenge was high-rise buildings. Their toilets drained down to the basement . so a treatment plant was put up there. From this plant the treated water was pumped back to the top and released as a spray into the cooling towers, thus making them operational.

This water had a completely different circuit and nobody used it for drinking. This system was later adopted by many cities and now there were many such plants in the Middle East.

As for large industries, they used similar methods but because they were big and could not do with the limited quantity of water from the toilets, they pumped directly from the sewers. The first to do this was the Union Carbide plant (since taken over by Oswal Agro) which came up in Chembur in 1967.

Many years later, Madras Refinery came up with a similar plant in 1991, as did Madras Fertilizers. The RCF (Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers) unit in Chembur used the same method in 2000.

Operating costs varied from Rs. 8 to Rs. 35 per 1,000 litres depending on the extent of treatment required; after all, they were pumping waste directly from sewers . and industrial wastes had also entered the waters at some stage.

In the case of dairies, since they already had to spend a lot on pollution control, owners usually decided to spend a little more to get reusable water.

Pulp and paper mills reused water not because they were concerned with the shortage of water, but because the water contained fibres and they wanted to reuse those fibres.

Other factors that encouraged industries to go for reuse were the savings on abstraction costs, on the cess charges payable, the tax advantages and so on. Industries located in dry areas could afford to sustain themselves because they went for reuse. Some of them were zerodischarge industries.

Seventy percent of the sites of Hindustan Lever were zero-discharge factories.

Turning to Bombay, Mr. Arcievala said the situation had worsened since the 1990.s. Where earlier the city provided 150 litres per person per day, the figure had slumped to 120 litres and now 90 litres (or even less). The population was increasing almost daily, but the supply remained almost the same.

One of the solutions suggested was supplying reused water. But providing two types of water to a city would require the laying of a separate network of pipes. If ever such a project was undertaken, it would result in a traffic jam that would last five years or more.

However, the city of Delhi was now thinking of taking up the idea, especially in areas where the ground levels (of water) had fallen very rapidly.

Another solution was ground water recharge. This was being done in Goa. The hotels there had been using so much water, that it had become an invitation for sea water to come in; many wells had already turned brackish.

Therefore, people were now being encouraged to treat waste water and put it back in the soil so that the sea water was kept away. This was already happening in Goa. Some parts of Bombay were also trying it.

Across the seas, the USA had been providing dual quality supplies for many years. In California, 57 million litres of reused water was being supplied every day for 25 years now. In Florida, 85 million litres of reused water was being used daily.

Mr. Arcievala said another major problem was the huge evaporation losses from lakes. In Europe, there was rain every two or three days. But in India there was none for eight months and the lakes had to store water.

To add to the problem, there was a tremendous amount of evaporation during those eight months on account of heat and sunshine.

Thus, Indian lakes suffered 25 to 33% water loss just due to evaporation. Another one-third was lost by way of leakages. That left very little water for actual consumption.

While working on this problem, it was found that the chemicals used in America and other places were not as effective here. But there was no choice. Sewage had to be treated and made fit for reuse in lakes.

A big opportunity came his way in 1998 in the shape of Hyderabad.s Hussainsagar Lake. It was the first Indian lake to be supplemented by treated waste water. Twenty million litres of sewage (made fit for reuse after treatment) was added daily from a residential area upstream of the lake. The project was now seven years old.

Water from this lake was used only for non-potable purposes; supplementation kept it topped up and ensured overflows every year. It helped control smells; it controlled the build-up of nutrients in the lake; and protected other beneficial uses.

There.s just no way that we can avoid reusing waste water, says Dr. Soli Arcievala. And as the population goes up, the problems will only increase

But what about lakes supplying potable water? Could the same method be used? Could one try "supplementation" for them?

That was a challenge, Mr. Arcievala said. It had not yet been done, but perhaps it could be done by giving advance treatment to the waste water; provided, also, that it was followed by ground water recharge; and that water quality monitoring and control were effective at all times.

The Americans are clever -they say the water is free and the charge is only for 'pressure and purity'!



The .ultimate reuse. is supplementing drinking water. But are we ready for it? Dr. Soli Arcievala hopes that it doesn.t happen in his lifetime

It was here that the guest speaker referred to the "uncontrolled reuse" that was resorted to unwittingly.

We discharge partially treated sewage, or sewage that is half- or three-fourths treated, into our rivers and forget it. Once it is put in a river. the river keeps flowing. on to the next town which takes the water, gives it some treatment and supplies it as drinking water.

"This is exactly what happens. People drink it because they are not aware that all water supplied is just dilute and disinfected sewage.

"Agra drinks the sewage of Delhi, and Allahabad drinks the sewage of both Delhi and Agra. This is a psychosocio- economic problem. We do much reuse in this uncontrolled way and it will only get worse as the population increases".

Mr. Arcievala said he was now involved in a unique project . the recreational use of treated waste water. In this, waste water was treated and reused for recreational and tourist purposes.

A new lake for recreational purposes was being created in Jaipur. The lake hardly had any water two months after the monsoons. It turned dry by January or February every year.

"We found that if we added 20 million litres of sewage from Jaipur itself, take it, treat it by various natural processes, and then put it into the lake, it would not dry.

"Once it is finished, a five-star hotel and bungalows will come up; people will go boating, never knowing what is the origin of that water.

"There is tremendous scope... Already, an amount of Rs. 1,000 crores has been put in on that lake. Udaipur is next in line. Bangalore is also thinking of it, so is Powai".

If this approach caught on, then many more .candidate. lakes would come forth. After all, reused water could be put to several uses, such as boating and water sports, livestock watering, wetlands development, bird sanctuaries and so on.

But the "ultimate reuse" was to supplement drinking water - "which I hope doesn.t come in my lifetime".

Mr. Arcievala said at present it was being done in only one country, in Windhoek, Namibia, South Africa. And it had been going on for the last 25 years. Thus, it was now timetested. The people had survived. The authorities there were mixing on a 50- 50 basis; 50% natural, clean water and 50% reused water (of course, highly treated waste water).

On the other hand, indirect reuse was being done in the USA, Europe and Israel; there, the waste water was well treated and then discharged underground.

"In flowing underground, the water loses its .identity. and then the people don.t mind if you take it out through another well downstream. This is being done in Israel, in the USA and in Europe, too. Holland drinks the sewage of half of Europe".

"Singapore is now preparing for it; it buys water from Malaysia and is afraid Malaysia can stop the valve one day and starve them into submission. So they have already started it. And the best part is that it is Indians who are building it".

Mr. Arcievala recalled that at a 2007 conference, delegates from Singapore brought bottled water which they said was reused sewage. On a subsequent visit to that country, his guide told him that every school had a programme which told students that reused water was good for drinking.

With its large population, India would also have to consider all forms of reuse. But first it was necessary to conserve shrinking water supplies and stop abusing lakes and ponds and converting them into cesspools for receiving sewage and industrial wastes.

As a member of the MMRDA committee, he knew that lakhs of rupees were being given to people to stop them from releasing sewage and industrial waste into lakes and ponds. Many lakes and ponds in the northern parts of Bombay were totally ruined as they were only receiving sewage. But then if sewage was not allowed, they would dry up.

Finally, the guest speaker said, "we have to charge the right price for water. But when I talk about price in India, everybody gets angry and says water should be given free. So, we have subsidised water".


But what was the situation in the USA? The Americans were clever. They said water was free and that the people were charged only for "pressure and purity". They were charging for the pressure (in the taps); otherwise, people could go to the river and drink as much as they wanted, free of cost.

"I hope we would do the same thing here so that our water is conserved better and treated with more respect," Mr. Arcievala concluded.

Answering questions, he said desalination plants were the ultimate answer, but far more expensive than reuse. It was being done in the Middle East because they had the oil (fuel) to run their desalination plants. With oil at $125 per barrel, reusing sewage was a cheaper option for India.

About reports that the city.s sewage was let out in the sea untreated, Mr. Arcievala said it was true but the criticism was unwarranted.

"The sea is the best treatment plant you can get in the world. Why not use the benefit of the sea? The sea will treat it (sewage), nature will treat it. We have many studies on this. I can assure you that nature does what other treatment plants do. But those who are not able to sell (waste treatment) equipment may get a little frustrated".

Referring to the row of water bottles on the head table, he said theydid not contain reused water. Rather, they claimed to contain .Pure Water from the Himalayas.. But this luxury would only last so long as the icebergs and glaciers did not melt away. Global warming was going on furiously and there would be nothing left to fill in those bottles.

PP Sandip Agarwalla said he had come across a surprising piece of information, to the effect that it took 16 litres of water to produce one onelitre plastic bottle used for water.

Dr. Arcievala tended to agree with him and went on to add that by the same token it was also advisable to stop making beer because it took 11 litres of water to brew one litre of beer.