Water treatment produces irrigation water for local parks: a case study from Vasant Vihar, New Delhi

At Delhi, there are dirty waste water rivulets, “nallahs” crisscrossing all localities and adding to the pollutant load of the river Yamuna. The situation is alarming with today’s count of nallahs standing at more than 22 Nos. These urban drains are nature’s creation and are meant to convey storm / rain water from upstream areas to downstream, finally leading to the river. The city faces shortage of water supply and while domestic supply is sustained, the horticultural needs are not met. The result is all the public parks and their lawns and gardens are not maintained and remain parched.

In such an urban scenario, on the supply side there are dirty drains with water flowing always and on the demand side the parks are devoid of water for irrigation. This article presents a novel concept is planned to source dirty water and optimally process and make it fairly clean for watering the nearby parks.

Energy and resources saving Decentralised Waste Systems (DEWATS) can work well in preserving natural nutrient cycles, cause no damage to aquatic systems and would pave the way for appropriate ecological sanitation.  It would be appropriate to create more awareness and participation wherever possible with propagation of these sustainable initiatives at local level.

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