New Delhi, Mar 2

Amid efforts to provide clean drinking water to every household in the country, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat made a strong pitch on Wednesday for the use of recycled water for irrigation and industrial purposes.

Speaking at the “India Industry Water Conclave” organized by the FICCI, Shekhawat emphasized the importance of recycling and reuse of wastewater and greywater for agriculture, horticulture, groundwater recharge or other non-potable water uses.

Pankaj Kumar, Secretary, Water Resources, said the use of treated water in irrigation and industrial application is important for effective utilization of the available water resources.

He said the draft national framework for the use of treated water has been prepared by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and circulated to the state governments, industry associations, and other stakeholders for their comments.

Kumar said the focus is shifting towards improving water-use efficiency, deployment of sensor technology, measuring devices, plants for treatment of used water, reuse of treated water in irrigation and industry, expansion of drip or sprinkler irrigation.

He said smart integrated water management systems are bound to grow and should be harnessed and deployed.

These present significant opportunities to the private sector to help improve efficiency in water use in various sectors, Kumar added.

FICCI president Sanjiv Mehta said the challenge is how to make this sector an attractive employment opportunity, how to encourage public-private participation in water services and infrastructure projects, introduction of central schemes to incentivise greenfield sewage treatment plants and common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) on a PPP basis for cities, municipalities and MSME clusters.

The Centre has launched the Jal Jeevan Mission with an aim to provide clean drinking water to all rural household in the country by 2024.