Mumbai: In a bid to save drinking water, the BMC is mulling to provide treated water for non-potable purposes in the city. The civic body will take its first step by providing treated wastewater to defence and government establishments. The water can be used for gardening, washing vehicles, and construction work, thus saving the potable water, said a civic official.
The plant at Colaba treats wastewater to the required standards before allowing it to be released into the nearest water source. The plant, situated on the coast, is the city’s smallest with a treating capacity of 37 million litres a day (MLD). The treated water, which is released deep into the sea through a 1.5km pipeline, is good for non-potable use, claims the civic official.
The BMC has received a requirement of 3.5 MLD from the Navy. “Currently we are supplying 17 MLD potable water to the area. We will be supplying 3.5 MLD to them that can be used for non-potable purposes. We are also trying to encourage other companies to use another 7 MLD wastewater, which is treated at the plant,” said a senior civic official. The BMC supplies 3,900 ML of water to Mumbai daily, while the demand has reached up to 4,500 ML.
For several decades, the city has relied only on rainfall through which water stock is collected in seven lakes. However, after the construction of Middle Vaitarna Dam in 2012, no new project could materialise for an alternate source of water. This year, the BMC started working on its ambitious Gargai dam project, followed by a desalination plant at Manori in Malad, which will take another 3-4 years to come into reality. Moving ahead its plan to treat effluent and convert it into potable water, the civic authority has also appointed a consultant to study the feasibility of the same at the Colaba plant.
The remaining sewage plants have been pumping out wastewater into the rivers, creeks, or the sea after primary treatment. The BMC has undertaken an ambitious project of the construction and upgradation of sewage treatment plant at Worli, Bandra, Dharavi, Versova, Malad, Ghatkopar and Bhandup to treat 2,464 million liters of sewage daily under the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project-II (MSDP).
