Reusing Water is Key to Texas' Water Crisis

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Reusing Water is Key to Texas' Water Crisis

Key to Solving Some of Texas' Water Shortage Problems May be as Simple as Teaching Homeowners & Cities How to Efficiently Return Wastewater to the Ground, According to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Specialist

Jantrania is the new wastewater specialist at theBlackland Research and Extension Center in Temple. His emphasis, according to his website bio, will be to develop "a statewide AgriLife Extension education and research program related to surface and groundwater quality protection, with specific emphasis on non-point sources and other environmental issues."

His appointment is 70 percent AgriLife Extension, and 30 percent Texas A&M AgriLife Research.

Although Jantrania is new to Texas A&M AgriLife, he has more than 25 years of experience working in the wastewater industry, both in public and private sectors, with a focus on on-site sewage facilities and home septic systems, according to his vitae. Before coming to Texas, Anish has worked in Virginia, Massachusetts and West Virginia.

He received his bachelor's fromUdaipur University, India in 1982, a master's fromOhio State Universityin 1985 and a doctorate fromClemson Universityin 1989 - all in agricultural engineering. He also earned a master's in business administration fromWest Virginia Universityin 1993.

Jantrania said that conservation methods such as rainwater harvesting are good, and he'll be working to promote those efforts too, but conventional conservation measures only go so far when there's no rain.

"The current infrastructure is dependent upon rain," he said. "Lakes, reservoirs and groundwater supplies are all dependent upon rain. Whatever is happening in nature, the rainfall pattern is changing."

There are options, such as pumping water in from other sources and desalinization, but currently they are very expensive, though research is ongoing to find ways to lower the cost.

"Conservation is always step No. 1, and the second thing is reuse or multiuse," he said.

Imagine, Jantrania said, a typical water cycle of a city. If the city is drawing water from wells or from a reservoir, it is using most of it only once. Some water is used to irrigate lawns and athletic fields, and may quickly return to the watershed, but much of it is treated and then released into a river or stream.

Source: TAMU

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