Private sector role sought in water management

Private sector should extend its co-operation in creating rainwater harvesting systems, building watershed management programmes and water recycling of waste water, B Suresh, chief operating officer, Mahindra Acres Consulting Engineers Ltd, said at a seminar organised by Ficci on 'Industrial Water Conservation and Management'.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, Suresh said while public-private partnerships would be required to build urban infrastructure, and for sustainable water management and conservation, there was also a need for proper policy backing.

He said that the full recovery of costs should be ensured in any industrial water project.

Though depletion of water resources was not a major concern in the immediate term, it might be a serious issue in the longer term. In this context, industrial water conservation assumed greater importance, he added.

C Thangavelu, managing director, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, said elimination of wastages, recycling of water and rain water harvesting systems alone would solve most of the problems.

He also added that the implementation of rainwater harvesting system in Chennai helped tackle the water crisis in the city and the system was also extended to other parts of the state.

On the sidelines of the seminar, he said that Chennai city might not face any water problem during this year as three reservoirs -- Red Hills, Cholavaram and Ponndi -- supplying water to Chennai were full. The three reservoirs have a combined storage capacity of 7.4 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet).

The major factor for the comfortable water storage was the bountiful northwest monsoon.

Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman, Ficci-Tamil Nadu State Council, said leather industry was also working on zero discharge and the leather units would be spending about Rs 165 crore over the next couple of years to become zero-discharge. "In the next couple of years, leather sector, along with the textiles sector in Tirupur, will reach zero discharge status," he added.