Eu and India sign pact to recycle waste water

The 'Water4Crops project' has been launched recently at Icrisat (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) with a three-day meeting attended by the EU and Indian consortia partners. The initiative involves 21 partners led by Antonio Lopez, researcher at the Cnr-Water Research Institute (Irsa) and aims at recycling waste water to increase crop productivity, livelihoods of small farmers and rehabilitation of degraded lands in India and the European Union.

Under the Water4Crops-India project, Icrisat along with its consortium partners will be embarking on recycling of treated wastewater (grey water) from domestic uses and industrial wastewater. The consortium is unique as national and international research organizations and universities have joined hands with private entrepreneurs to find a win-win solution to wastewater disposal using bio-treatments for reuse in agriculture. This initiative will benefit farmers, industries, researchers as well as government organizations.

Highlighting Icrisat's pioneering role in the area of efficient water management in agriculture, Director General William Dar says: "Water reuse is of critical importance to the semi-arid regions of the world. Following Icrisat's successes with rainwater harvesting and management, we will now lead the Indian consortium in venturing into recycling industrial and domestic wastewater for agricultural use to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor particularly those in the country's dryland areas".

Through this initiative, Europe and India will share experiences, technologies and knowledge to benefit farmers, researchers and policy makers. The consortium will be working on three types of industrial waste water mainly from the Charminar Breweries of SabMiller, India in Andhra Pradesh; the Onion and Fruit Processing Plant at Jisl, Jalgaon in Maharashtra; and the Sugar Factory from Ugar Sugar in Karnataka.

Treatment of domestic wastewater will be studied and used in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh; Kolar, Karnataka; and Nagpur, Maharashtra; and saline wastewater from industries in the coastal regions. The consortium will also address the issue of rehabilitating degraded lands using untreated wastewater at certain sites to be identified.

Fonte: Antonio Lopez, Istituto di ricerca sulle acque, Bari, tel. 080/5820550, email antonio.lopez@ba.irsa.cnr.it

Per saperne di più: - www.icrisat.org/newsroom/news-releases/icrisat-pr-2013-media3.htm