GE Healthcare\'s Initiative to Prevent Water Crisis in India

Water brings joy to life like nothing else does. As cities expand, industries thrive, population increases and a new lifestyle swings in, the shortage of water increases. Usable water is running out sooner than we think. Often we do not think the amount of water we use always directly or indirectly in our day to day lives. It becomes a matter of high concern when we realize only 3% of the water is actually usable by us. With depleting water resources and our inability to create fresh water sources, it becomes critical to reclaim and reuse the water we can.

India’s situation with respect to water is rather alarming. The country will have 3 out of the top ten megacities and be home to 70 cities of million plus population creating one of the biggest urbanization challenges in human history. India has only 1/3^rd of the treatment capacity required to treat   approximately 40,000 million sewerage generated in its major cities. The deep understanding of water chemistry, local conditions and global expertise is required if future has to be secured.

That is where an entity like GE Water and Process Technologies come in. It applies advanced technology services to solve the toughest water, waste water and process challenges for outcome worldwide. Headquarters in Bangalore, the Indian operations has team for Process Design, Engineering, and Installation, commissioning and services with over 150 installations in India alone, they stand deeply committed to solve some of India’s toughest water and waste water problems. They have installed the waste water treatment plan to serve as a model for treatment and reuse.

Mohan Kumar, Professor of water resources, engineering says- “Water consumption at Indian Institute of Science is 4 MLD.Recently with GE Technologies IISC established a recycling plant with 5 MLD. We are using this recycled water which is of portable quality for several purposes .We have a dedicated distribution system to distribute recycled water. With this the stress on our water resources has come down and also there is lot of saving of rainwater. With our own experience, we would also like to urge the other campuses across India to use these technologies so that they can bring down the stress on freshwater.”

In the case of an entire city like Bangalore, for over a half a century Bangalore water supply and sewerage board has been on an endeavour to provide safe drinking water and quality sewerage treatment facility to the citizens of Bengaluru.

Dr.PN Ravindra, Executive Engineer, New Initiatives, Bangalore water supply and sewerage board says the sewerage treatment plant at Kabbanpark is operated by BWSSB and is first in India with advanced membrane biological reactor. The treated sewerage exceeds the water quality standards prescribed and can be used for a variety of purposes. The untreated sewerage posses a lot of health hazards when it gets to the ground and this technology can provide a solution to reduce the burden on freshwater and can convert waste water into usable water.

As we get about our daily busy live, we fail to see sometimes the emerging picture until one day our taps will run dry. As our feet touch the ground and the sunlight filters in through the leaves and we hear the sound of children laughing and playing, we realize that we have but one planet and the future for all of us lies in the water.