Making Pit Water Potable

CIMFR develops technology to make pit water potable

Water-water everywhere, not an drop to drink. The old saying, often used for flood-like situation, would have been coming into the minds of residents of Dhanbad coal belt after seeing huge accumulation of water in coal mines left redundant and their taps running dry at the same time. The scene turns even grim in summers when thousands rendered waterless.

However, the scene is different this summer for the residents of Pootkee-Balihari coal mine area of Dhanbad operated by the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL). Thanks to the mine water reclamation technology developed by Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR)  shared by the coal producing major that is ensuring supply of clean drinking water to nearby villages.

“We have taken up the project on pilot basis. The plant supplied to us by the CIMFR is of 50000 liter purification capacity per day and we are using 30000 to 35000 liters of pure water through this at present. The water claimed from the Pootke-Balihari coal mine is cleaned and supplied to villages Aralgadia and Rajput Basti, our offices and headquarter and a CISF camp stationed there,” KC Mishra, General Manager of Pootke-Balihari area of the BCCL, told The Pioneer.

The villages and offices of the company besides the security establishment getting potable water in this season house around 5,000 persons who thrust is quenched through the mine waste. “Before going ahead, we have tested the quality of the treated water on 20 parameters at ISM, Dhanbad. It is of very high quality water with no impurity left,” added Mishra.

Jharkhand known for its mineral wealth has numerous mines under operation where underground water is left unclaimed in the want of any technique and willpower of the mining companies. Experts feel that mine water can be tapped to deal with the scarcity most inhabitants of mining areas have to live with. Nevertheless the reclaimed water from mine needed to be treated for pH adjustment, removal of TDS, dissolved metal ions and other variables found before being used.

“The technology is very useful for the States like Jharkhand where we see severe water shortage particularly in summers at one hand and large quantity of unused mine water on the other. Our technology is based on ozonation method and cost of treating polluted mine water is just 20 paise per liter,” said Dr Abhay Kumar Singh of CIMFR.

Encouraged by the response, the BCCL is mulling to replicate the technique in its other mines. Union Coal Secretary Anil Swarup during his recent visit to the area lauded the adaptation and told officials to spread it to the benefit of both environment as well as people, informed Mishra.

“There are 6000 employees of ours and taking around 25000 residents of the mining locality. We can provide safe drinking water to these people. To begin with, the treated water is being offered for free in case of any marriage or other social functions for the locals besides meeting their daily drinking needs,” he said while wishing that the cheaper cost of the plant would have helped more.

Moreover the CIMFR is working in that direction and more and more entities using the technique for larger benefits would bring down cost of the purification plant considerably from current Rs 12-13 lakh. “We are in talks with the BCCL for replicating the Mine Water Reclamation Technology to its other subsidiaries like ECL, CCL. More research is being done and we are simplifying the technology,” said Abhay Kumar Singh.

Source: Daily Pioneer

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Taxonomy

• Open Pit Dewatering
• Drinking Water Managment
• Drinking Water