Expert panel recommends 5 technologies for drinking water, sanitation

"A multi-disciplinary technical committee in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti has recommended five technologies, specifically three technologies for drinking water and two technologies for sanitation as innovative technologies out of the ten technologies considered by it and these technologies would now be listed in the innovation portal of the department," the ministry said. These technologies were appraised at different levels before consideration and recommendation by the committee and would be helpful to the implementing agencies in the states and UTs, the ministry said.

Representative image Image Credit: ANI

Ahigh-level multi-disciplinary technical panel in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation has recommended five technologies, three for safe drinking water and two for sanitation, an official statement said on Sunday. According to the Jal Shakti Ministry, the committee focussed on application of science and technology for providing field-level solutions.

The technologies include Grundfos AQpure, a solar energy based water treatment plant based on ultra-filtration, Janajal Water on Wheel, an Internet of Things (IoT) based electric vehicle to deliver safe water to households and Presto Online Chlorinator, a non-electric online chlorinator for disinfection of water for removal of bacterial contamination.

The other two are Johkasou technology, an inbuilt packaged black (sewage) and grey water (kitchen and bath water) treatment system having advanced anaerobic-aerobic configuration that can be installed underground, while FBTec is a site assembled decentralised sewage treatment system using fixed filter media. The states and union territories can adopt the technologies depending on their requirement and suitability, the ministry said.

The panel was headed by K VijayRaghavan, the principal scientific adviser to the government, members from NITI Aayog, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Bio-Technology, CSIR, DRDO, NEERI, IIT, National Institute of Ocean Technology, states. "A multi-disciplinary technical committee in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti has recommended five technologies, specifically three technologies for drinking water and two technologies for sanitation as innovative technologies out of the ten technologies considered by it and these technologies would now be listed in the innovation portal of the department," the ministry said.

These technologies were appraised at different levels before consideration and recommendation by the committee and would be helpful to the implementing agencies in the states and UTs, the ministry said. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, innovative proposals are sought online for assisting the states/UTs to adopt innovative technologies to deliver drinking water services to rural communities of adequate quantity and prescribed quality, it said.

Various challenges being faced during implementation of the mission include variations in regional endowment of water resources and levels of service provision, water quality challenges, convergence with the sanitation sector and dealing with grey water/sludge issues, the ministry said. A two stage screening process was carried out for shortlisting the applicants. Out of the 87 applications received, the initial short listing was done by the Technical Unit based on online submissions of technology.

In the second stage, response was sought as a questionnaire followed by a detailed online presentation by shortlisted applicants. Second stage was carried out in lieu of the field evaluation owing to COVID-19 lockdown and travel restrictions.

Final shortlisted 10 technologies were considered by the committee out of which five have been recommended, the ministry said.

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