SHOAIB SHAIKH
shoaib@herald-goa.com
Every year, March 22 is celebrated as World Water Day. According to the UN-Water, there are over 663 million people living without safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours queuing or trekking to distant sources and coping with the health impacts of using contaminated water.
UN-Water is the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for all freshwater related issues, including sanitation.
Guy Ryder, Chair of UN-Water says, “Do what you can, do it with others, and do it with passion”.
In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated March 22 as World Water Day which is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with governments and partners.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), launched in 2015, include a target to ensure everyone has access to safe water by 2030, making water a key issue in the fight to eradicate extreme poverty.
This year’s theme is ‘Wastewater’ and the campaign, ‘Why waste water?’ is about reducing and reusing wastewater.
SDG’s 2030 target envisages to “improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.”
As per UN-Water, globally, over 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused. Around 1.8 billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene cause around 842,000 deaths each year.
According to the UN estimates, by 2030, the global demand for water is expected to grow by 50 percent. Most of this demand will be in cities and will require new approaches to wastewater collection and management. Indeed, reused wastewater may help address other challenges including food production and industrial development.
In Goa, the state government has proposed setting up of an independent Water Regulatory Authority and amendments to the Goa Ground Water Regulation Act, 2002 and Goa Irrigation Act, 1973 to manage and regulate utilization of the water resources in the state.
In its draft Water Policy which is in the public domain, is expected to receive a finalization soon, the Water Resources Department, addressing concerns of water pollution has envisaged immediate action against pollution of ground water as per Goa Groundwater Regulation Act.
Regarding permissions for septic tanks, the policy has proposed that all cases with a well, pond or nullah within 100 metres of a building should be referred to groundwater officer for comments, who shall respond within a period of 30 days.
Panjim is one of the few cities in the country with a sequential batch reactor (SBR) technology based sewage treatment plant. Panjim is one of the cities in the country which will be developed as a Smart-City by the Ministry of Urban Development.
The Tonca STP treats on an average 9-10 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage collected from across the city through the sewerage lines and an additional 100-120 soil tankers unloading sewage from the villages in the coastal belt of North Goa and the municipalities of Bicholim and Sanquelim.
While a negligible amount of the effluent water from the STP at Tonca is currently utilised for watering the gardens and the road dividers, a small sum of quantity is being also bought by one of the real estate developer in the city at his construction sites.
Used by the Department of Forest to water the gardens in the capital city, the STP treated water is as clean as the groundwater that one draws from the nearest well. Though not pumped and supplied for domestic purpose, the water from the plant is currently used for watering the plants and trees within the Panjim city and the plants beautifying the road dividers all across the capital.
