Recycled Wastewater For Non-potable Use To Overcome Water Scarcity: Experts

News Desk

Peshawar: “Pakistan is generating 2301 million cubic meters (mcm) 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 the extraction of groundwater,” Experts opined.

While realizing the impacts of climate change, alarming population growth, and poor agricultural practices on the country’s water reservoirs, there is a dire need to promote the idea of reusing wastewater for non-portable purposes through the installation of treatment plants in big cities.

Meanwhile, the population bulge and expansion of housing societies will result in the production of billions of tons of wastewater in the near future and its high time to promote the concept of treating discarded water to overcome water scarcity by reusing the commodity for irrigation purposes, cleanliness, the use of the fire brigade, car washing, etc.

These views were expressed by environmentalists and experts on water conservation during a field trip of journalists to a wastewater treatment plant. The trip was organised by the Institute of Urbanization (IoU) to raise awareness among Eco-Journalists and explore the benefits of reusing wastewater through the installation of a plant at a posh housing society.

For a country to become climate resilient, we must consider wastewater as a source of valuable content through which the need for water for non-potable purposes can be met through the installation of treatment plants in cities, industries, etc., environmentalists suggested.

“It is high time to promote this idea of Treating WasteWater (TWW), for which governments and individuals at the community level should play their role in saving water for their own and for upcoming generations,” stated IoU Senior Fellow Dr Ejaz Ahmad.

Water scarcity has 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 the World Resource Institute (WRI), Dr. Ejaz added.

Water availability in Pakistan has plummeted from 5229 cubic meters per inhabitant in 1962 to just 1187 in 2017.

Almost all the housing societies in the country should install wastewater treatment plants for the utilization of used water for irrigation, horticulture, and sweeping roads, Water and Power Department General Manager Abdul Rauf observed.

The project has proved to be highly sustainable by treating 300,000 gallons of waste water on a daily basis, which if obtained from ground water through tube wells would have dropped the water table, besides the payment of electricity bills in millions of rupees, Rauf apprised journalists.

There are six shifts of four hours each, and in each one, 50,000 gallons of waste water are treated and recycled, converting the murky water into fully transparent water, he added.

The quality standard of treated water is in full compliance with the set NEQs (National Environmental Quality Standards), making it free of aerobic bacteria and turbidity. However, being Muslims, we could not recommend the utilisation of the treated water for drinking, ablution, or clothes washing purposes, Abdul Rauf further said.

The treatment plant is also serving as a role model, and people from different cities are visiting to observe its process, water treatment, operational cost, and feasibility for replication. The big industries that produce highly contaminated water that gets into canals can easily install these plants and save the natural resources from getting polluted.

Experts also suggested the promotion of nature-based solutions to overcome water scarcity by introducing the practices of rainwater recharge and accumulation in tanks for reuse at the domestic level.