Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1085636
Q & A S a r a v a n a n P a d m a n a b a n I n g e I n d i a We need commitment from industry on reuse Getting into the water industry was totally accidental. I was always passionate about sales and marketing. I fi rst joined Ion Exchange India's corporate marketing group. That was a great start to my career because there was scope for learning and performing in diff erent seg- ments of the business. I worked on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects. And product promotions in business-to-business (B2B) segments covering direct sales and channel distribution. The in- dustry is so broad that every day I am ready to learn something new, keeping up-to-date with the latest technologies. I have joined a well-established company in Inge. It has a long history and since 2011 has been a subsidiary of global chemicals group BASF. In my new role, I want to ensure that we retain our market-leading position. This will involve improving existing infrastructure and the structured, focused approach in order to continue growing a thriving membrane business. The future will be shaped by systems with higher recoveries based on reduced energy consumption, as well as new technologies to reuse wastewater more effi ciently. What fi rst attracted you to working in the water industry? What excites you about the challenges and opportunities ahead? What one thing would you change about the water industry? wastewater more effi ciently. on the back of another project to examine the feasibil- ity of building India's largest wastewater treatment facility: the 847,000 m3/d Malad Zone wastewater treatment plant to provide recycled water for vari- ous non-potable applications. The ‚ rm also assessed the op- tion of using space at ‚ ve satel- lite pumping stations to create wastewater treatment facilities to simplify distribution. Black & Veatch is not disclos- ing the results of the studies at present, although both are complete. "Non-potable reuse requires a new set of infrastruc- ture to pump e‰ uentŠwhere it is needed. In absence of large indus- trial-type users, it o‹ en becomes uneconomical due to high capital cost. As a result, we have not seen many large-scale, non-potable recycled water projects imple- mented in India. Utilities are still ‚ guring out how much they should recycle and the practical volume of supply depending on the location of large end users," says Owais Farooqi, project man- ager at Black & Veatch. Nagpur, Maharashtra's third largest city, is leading the drive on tertiary water treatment. It's about to become the ‚ rst municipality in India to recycle more than 90 per cent of sewage generated by households and businesses. Nagpur Municipal Corporation is poised to raise the capacity of its sewage treatment plants to recycle 480,000 m3/d of the total 525,000 m3/d of wastewater that the city produces. The National Thermal Power Corporation has report- edly agreed to purchase 150,000 m3/d of treated sewage water. And Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited is to procure 190,000 m3/d for thermal power stations in Koradi and Khaparkheda. India's regulations and planning processes. These need rethinking, including commitment from across industry on wastewater recy- cling. This is the way to create a sustainable environment and to provide fresh drinking water for those in need. March 2019 Water. desalination + reuse In Site 21