Environmentalists suggest promoting idea of reusing wastewater

While realizing the impacts of climate change, alarming population growth and poor agriculture practices on water reservoirs of the country, there is a dire need of promoting the idea of reusing wastewater for non-portable purposes through installation of treatment plants in big cities. The population bulge and expansion of housing societies will result in production of billions of tons of wastewater in near future and its high time to promote the concept of treating discarded water to overcome water scarcity by reusing the commodity for irrigation purpose, cleanliness, use of fire brigade, car washing etc. These views were expressed by environmentalists and expert on water conservation during a field trip of journalists to a waste water treatment plant. The trip was organized by Institute of Urbanization (IoU) for awareness of Eco-Journalists to explore the benefits of reusing of wastewater through installation of plant at a posh housing society. The environmentalists included Dr. Ejaz Ahmad, Senior Fellow IoU, Abdul Rauf G.M Water and Power and Attiq-ur-Rehman, Manager Operation Water treatment Plant Bharia Town. “Pakistan is generating 2301 million cubic meters of wastewater per year and if half of this water is utilized for non-potable purposes through treatment, it will help a lot in overcoming water scarcity by reducing pressure on extraction of ground water,” they opined. For becoming climate resilient country we must consider waste water as a source of valuable content through which the need of water for non-potable purposes can be met through installation of treatment plants at cities, industries etc, they suggested. Almost all the housing societies in the country should install waste water treatment plants for utilization of used water for irrigation, horticulture and sweeping of roads, Abdul Rauf observed. The project has proved to be highly sustainable by treating 300,000 gallons of waste water on daily basis which if obtained from ground water through tube wells would have dropped water table besides payment of electricity bills in millions of rupees, Rauf apprised journalists. There are six shifts of four hours duration and in each one 50,000 gallons of waste water is treated and recycled, converting the murky water into fully transparent. While recalling the need for installation of waste water treatment plant, Rauf said five of the tube wells installed in the housing society for provision of drinking water to residents got dry in few years, forcing the management to find ways for environment friendly sustainable sources of water collection. The quality standard of treated water is in full compliance of set NEQs (National Environmental Quality Standards) making it free for aerobic bacteria and turbidity. However, being a Muslim, we could not recommend utilization of the treated water for drinking, ablution and clothes washing purposes, he added. “It is high time for promoting this idea of Treating Waste Water (TWW) for which governments and individuals at community level should play their role for saving water for their own and for upcoming generations,” says Dr. Ejaz of IoU. Water scarcity had become a very serious threat to Pakistan’s sustainable development and economic growth as the country was ranked 14th among the 17 extremely high baseline water stress countries listed by World Resource Institute (WRI), he added. Water availability in Pakistan has plummeted from 5229 cubic meters per inhabitant in 1962 to just 1187 in 2017. While latest survey will reveal the more dangerous picture. The treatment plant is also serving as role model and people from different cities are visiting to observe its process, water treatment, operational cost and feasibility for replication. The big industries which produces highly contaminated water that gets way into canals can easily install these plants and save the natural resources from getting polluted. They also suggested for promotion of nature based solutions to overcome water scarcity by introducing the practices of rain water recharge and accumulation of downpour in tanks for reuse at domestic level.