When the first set of detailed data from Census 2011, Houses, Households Amenities and Assets, was released a couple of weeks ago, there was much flinching at the fact that around half of all Indians still defecate in the open. The census data also showed that piped and treated drinking water is presently enjoyed by just a third of Indian households.
Now, the aim of providing sanitation and piped drinking water for all will demand increasing allocations. But the CSE report Excreta Matters: How urban India is soaking up water, polluting rivers and drowning in its own excreta shows that mere money just can?t solve the problem. At its core, it asks a basic question: have the planners properly considered that increased water supply will increase sewage, and some of this sewage will need to be converted into potable water?
It points out that since 2006, JNNURM has poured unforeseen money into projects for water and sewerage, which have taken up about 70% of the R60,000 crore allocation, which is really big money compared to the R3,700 sanctioned for the same in the previous 25 years or the R5,000 crore sanctioned for river conservation programmes. ?The problem here is when money of such magnitude is allocated for sewerage, it is interpreted as upgrading infrastructure in the city. Therefore sewage systems are not seen as connected to the river, nor is there focus on whether these systems are working to clean up the water bodies. In fact, under JNNURM performance is measured simply by tracking the money allocated and money spent.? Hardware is installed but rivers don?t get clean, sewage systems don?t work, and water utilities spend more and more money (and electricity) to pump in supply from further and further away.
Delhiites need look no further than the Yamuna, whose clean-up has absorbed R70crore/km, and which has been cosseted with 17 STPs over the years. But about 30% of this installed sewage treatment capacity remains underutilised and 52% of Delhi?s waste reaches the Yamuna untreated. The explanation Excreta Matters provides for this also holds true for most of the other 70 cities surveyed for the report. Sewers haven?t been laid under large parts of the capital. Many of those that exist are choked and in desperate need of repair. STPs have anyway been built where there is land rather than where there can be most effective pollution control. So, much sewage perforce ends up either polluting the groundwater or the river, where treated and untreated water mixes to negate the entirety of the hardware fix.
By contrast, in the fragile ecosystem of Amarnath, all the water generated by the pilgrims is so treated that only clean water is discharged into the surrounding environment, with the Lidder river valley retaining its natural beauty instead of decaying into a modern sewer?like Najafgarh in Delhi, Buddha in Ludhiana and Mithi in Mumbai.
Polluting then cleaning is not the wiser choice, nor is investing in expensive hardware which is undermined by a poor understanding of the basic water-sewage situation. The bustling city of Ludhiana, the CSE report points out, has been building STPs at a frenetic pace but these STPs have no sewage to treat! What?s known as the Buddha Nullah now used to be darya not too long ago, carrying clean water through the city. All it now carries is thick, black sewage and sludge while increasingly contaminated groundwater serves the city?s drinking needs.
What we really need to do is recycle sewage into usable water. This is what Chennai is doing now, at a cost of R28/l that is less than the cost of Metrowater. In Nanded in Maharashtra, we are seeing black water (sewage) and grey water (wash and kitchen) being conveyed into separate discharge systems, where grey water is reused for non-potable purposes. But even black water or human excreta is full of nutrients that can be used to fertilise land. ?Nature?s nutrient cycle?nutrients collected from the land returned back to the land?has got broken. Nutrients taken from land in the crops we eat are dumped into water leading, in turn, to pollution and eutrophication. The loop of nutrients?from land to land?needs to be restored once again.?
At present, Excreta Matters emphasises, agriculture accounts for 82% of the water use in India, as compared to 14% in rich and industrialised countries. As India urbanises and industrialises, water will become an increasing cause of rural-urban conflicts, unless we move towards this future with a plan, for both the water that industry uses and the waste it discharges, for urban households whose water consumption is inching closer to their developed country counterparts. But what?s the point of first learning water-wasteful ways and then learning to prune these ways? Embracing efficiencies today could carry us a long way tomorrow. As an indicator of the sort of improvements that need to be made, consider that in 2001 World Bank found that the value created for every cubic metre of water Indian industry used was only $7.5 as compared to $443.7 for the UK!
Unless India is to drown in its excreta, the report colourfully puts it, its cities must change their ways, mainly along the following lines. First, source water from as close as possible, which will also reduce leakages and have to be accompanied by revival of local water bodies. Second, use less water so that there is less waste to treat. Third, treat waste as close to source as possible. Finally, recycle every drop of waste water, whether it?s via inexpensive treatments that are suitable for industrial use and groundwater recharge, or expensive ones that give us drinking water. The 772-page report is very persuasive.
renuka.bisht@expressindia.com