India Environmental Issues

[drwho]

Ok,found this article about water purification technology from Japan.Very intresting,could it be something for India?

NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 8:

Pollution levels in air, water and immediate environment have gone up affecting quality of life. In a way the rapid advancement of technology has resulted in deterioration of environment around us, and we need affordable and sustainable products and systems to work in the reduction of rising pollution levels, said Professor E Balagurusamy, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University.

Speaking at the launch of Eco Bio Block (EBB), a cluster of volcanic porous rocks infused with active microbes, by Chennai-based biotech firm Ariake, he said all 'basic research should be applied for the welfare of the society and efforts are needed to make new products commercially viable, besides educating the public on the benefits of the new technologies that are sustainable for all in the long run'. The introduction of EBB for the first time in India would help in the fight against pollution of water bodies such as rivers, lakes and tanks, besides recycling aquarium and household sewage and agriculture waste by doing away with organic effluents.




EBB are eco-friendly blocks manufactured in Japan by Koyoh Co Ltd and infused with soyabean bacillus that works against pollutants to eradicate bad odour, kills mosquito larvae and facilitates water purification. The Japanese firm has designated Ariake, the biotech division of Paramount Builders promoted by M S Hameed, as the sole selling agent of EBB in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Far Eastern countries.

'The efficacy of EBB has been tested and proven in Japan and Malaysia and now this product is being introduced here with the cooperation extended to us by the Pollution Control Board and other government departments,' said M S Hameed, chairman, Paramount Builders group.

In a pilot test carried out by the Vimta Labs, Hyderabad, at the Cooum river it was found out EBB, after three weeks of usage, had eliminated harmful E-Coli bacteria, improved the dissolved oxygen at the site, making water transparent and, if continued for some time, it would have provided opportunity for sprouting of marine life in the polluted Cooum river near Ethiraj College, the report claimed.


EBB stones of Koyoh Co Ltd, Japan


'As water, a precious resource, is being wasted three or four times than what is required, we have a national duty to work against pollution of water bodies so as to make the scare resource available in times of drought too,' said Hameed.

Besides cleansing polluted water in reservoirs, lakes and ponds, EBB stones are useful for treating effluents in prawn, poultry and cattle farms, besides organic sewerage in domestic households and industrial sector. Available in different sizes and shapes, EBB is non-toxic with no side effects while in use and has been certified by the SIRIM Institute of Malaysia, a government undertaking, according to British standards of accreditation. 'We have been in correspondence with Koyoh Co for over six months for taking up the marketing rights of EBB. We have a vision to provide cleaner environment for the overall well being of humanity,' said Ahmed Shaw, director, Ariake.
'EBBs are not just blocks, but if used properly would benefit people immensely by removing sewage from water. Already the product has find acceptance in Japan, China, Korea and Malaysia,' said Koga Masayuki, president, Koyoh Co Limited, Japan.

Tanaka Yoshihisa, president, Tanaka Souken Co, and Toshiaki Iwashita, managing director, Big Bio Corporation Ltd, offered their felicitations to Ariake on taking up the marketing rights of EBB. Noted film producer AVM Saravanan and cine fame Meena graced the occasion.

Later talking to presspersons, S V Rayen, product manager, Ariake, said the price range of the EBBs were yet to be determined and as they would be importing from Japan for marketing here, it would take up some time to firm up retail cost of these volcanic stones of different sizes.

'Around 12,000 million tonnes of municipal wastes are being let out without treatment in India per day and EBBs could treat organic wastes of these effluents, besides domestic sewer,' Rayen said.

http://newstodaynet.com/08feb/bu1.htm

[drwho]

Water Socialists Are All Wet

by Fredrik Segerfeldt

Fredrik Segerfeldt is author of Water for Sale: How businesses and the market can resolve the world's water crisis (CATO, forthcoming).

A global water crisis is looming. More than a billion people worldwide lack access to clean and safe water – with devastating effects: 12 million deaths annually and millions of others struck by diseases associated with the lack of sanitary water. Last year, more people likely died from lack of water than from armed conflicts.

Today is World Water Day and the launch of the United Nation's international water decade, aimed at promoting the UN Millennium Goal of halving the number of people without access to clean and safe water. This is not the first time the UN has made bombastic declarations about water for everyone. It did so in 1977, when heads of state and governments of the member states promised to provide their populations with water. In fact the first international water decade actually took place in the 1980s, to little practical effect.

There may be a solution to what had been an insoluble problem. In recent years, a small number of developing country governments have turned to the private sector for help and have introduced market-oriented reforms in the water sector. Overall, the results have been encouraging.

The reforms have had limited scope – 97 percent of all water distribution, after all, is still in government hands– but millions of new households in such diverse locations as Argentina, Cambodia, Guinea, Morocco, and the Philippines, have been connected to water networks as a result of private investment. In developing countries with private investment in water infrastructure, 80 percent of the population now has access to an improved water source. Countries that don't allow private investment in water distribution have lagged behind their entrepreneurial rivals.

The attempts at privatization have met vociferous resistance. A coalition of Non-Government Organizations, trade unions for public employees, and international organizations such as the United Nations have done all they can to limit the role of the market and the business community. And they have had some success. The privatization pace has slowed down and the World Bank – one of the major advocates of privatization – has gone on the defensive. Global water companies are less and less inclined to invest in developing countries, for fear that their efforts may be nationalized.

This is a tragic development, and all the more so since the anti-privatization lobby is wrong on almost every count. What they denounce as "privatization" is not at all about complete deregulation and liberalisation of services. Rather, what we have seen are different forms of tightly regulated co-operation between cash-strapped developing country governments and skilled and experienced water companies.

The most common argument against privatization is that it will lead to rate hikes, making it impossible for the poor to pay for their water. This is a gross oversimplification: There are cases where prices have gone up after privatization, but there are also cases where rates have been lowered.

But grant the point for a minute. Artificially low prices are one of the main causes behind the shortage of good water. When operators know that they are going to lose money on each new household that they connect, they have no incentives to extend networks. If water companies do not get enough capital to lay down new pipes or to maintain the infrastructure, people suffer.

Millions of women and children therefore spend many hours per day (the estimate is 10 million man-years per annum) fetching bad water from remote sources. They cannot work or go to school during this time, which helps to keep them in poverty. Too low prices also lead to waste and misallocations in agriculture where most water is used, and generally used inefficiently.

Most importantly, the billion people who are not connected to any water network are forced to buy water – usually of bad quality – that costs on average 12 times more than network water. These people will gain, not lose, from higher prices, when operators get capital and incentives to reach them. Since the poor are not connected to the networks, they do not gain from subsidized water; they pay for it with their taxes, financing cheap water for the better off.

Members of the anti-privatization movement claim that water is a human right that only governments can provide. The problem is that, for whatever reason, many governments simply will not provide this water. It is not surprising that water companies with skills, incentives, capital and technology are far better equipped to provide water. No matter how many documents there are stating that access to water is a fundamental right, people drink neither paper nor rights, but water.

Some people also argue that since water is necessary for life, it needs to be distributed "democratically" – i.e., by the government. That is nonsense. Food is also necessary for humans to survive. And in countries where food is produced "democratically," there tend to be neither food nor democracy.

There is a solution to the water crisis. Companies and markets can save millions of lives – if they are allowed. Let us hope that the United Nations recognizes this today.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3715

[Suncity]

Interesting view point. Vandana Shiva will be upset.

[drwho]

Japanese loan for Bangalore's water, sewerage facilities

KARNATAKA, which is one of the States to benefit from a soft loan from the Japanese Government, hopes to use the assistance for providing a stable drinking water supply and sewerage facilities in Bangalore.

full story:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...0801260200.htm

[drwho]

Brass best bet to store water: India tip for UK expert

NEW YORK, APRIL 11: Ancient Indian wisdom that drinking water should be stored in brass vessels for good health has now been proved scientifically by researchers. Microbiologists say that water stored in brass containers could help combat many water-borne diseases and should be used in developing countries rather than their cheaper alternatives, plastic containers, researchers said.

Microbiologist Rob Reed, at Northumbria University in the UK who led the brass study, was quoted by Nature as saying that on a recent trip to India, he witnessed villagers doing exactly this. But he also heard an interesting piece of local wisdom: People believe that traditional brass water containers offer some protection against sickness. The idea, Nature added, intrigued Reed, who was in Asia investigating the anti-bacterial effects of sunlight on water. He has found that bacteria are indeed less likely to thrive in brass water pots than in earthenware or plastic ones. ‘‘It’s one of the traditional ideas of water treatment and we were able to find a microbiological basis for it,’’ he said.

Reed, with his colleagues Puja Tandon and Sanjay Chhibber, carried out two series of experiments. In Britain, they filled brass and earthenware vessels with a diluted culture of Escherichia Coli bacteria, which can cause illnesses. They then counted the surviving bacteria after six, 24 and 48 hours.

A similar test was carried out in India using naturally contaminated water. The amount of live E. Coli in the brass vessels dropped dramatically and after 48 hours, they fell to undetectable levels, Reed told the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting this week in Edinburgh. The key to the result is copper, which can disrupt biological systems, Reed explains.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=68227

[drwho]

Indian Environmental Organisation Under Dynamic Leadership Wins 2005 Stockholm Water Prize

The award has been given to CSE for its efforts to build a new paradigm of water management, which uses the traditional wisdom of rainwater harvesting and advocates the role of communities in managing their local water systems. In its citation, the Nominating Committee lauded CSE, under the leadership of Ms. Narain, “For a successful recovery of old and generation of new knowledge on water management, a community-based sustainable integrated resource management under gender equity, a courageous stand against undemocratic, top-down bureaucratic resource control, an efficient use of a free press, and an independent judiciary to meet these goals.”

CSE will receive the $150,000 Prize from HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in August. The Stockholm Water Prize is awarded annually to individuals and institutions for their outstanding contributions to the world of water. This year’s prize to CSE acknowledges the growing crisis of water management in many regions of the South and the need for new approaches that provide local food and water security to communities. CSE’s work, through its many publications, its research and advocacy has helped create new thinking on how traditional systems of water management, which use rainwater endowment, once rejuvenated could become the starting point for the removal of rural poverty in many part of the world.

read more at:
http://www.siwi.org/press/presrel_05_SWP_Winner_Eng.htm

[kronik]

Well, Well... India Is On The Drip

24x7. Something you'd associate with phone-banking, pizza, even perhaps police, but not infrastructure in India.
Especially water supply. Global statistics confirm the cynicism. No city in India (or South Asia) can boast a round-the-clock water supply, when even dozens of African cities like Dakar and Kampala flaunt it. Only a few Indian water boards recover O&M costs and none have performance indicators comparable to global standards.

On an average, says a recent TISS study, 65 per cent of households in Indian cities are water-deficient, clocking an average of 5.6 hours of supply per day. WHO puts minimum water needs at 100 litres per capita per day (pcpd); the Indian norm is 40.

More important is the duration of the supply. Cities like Delhi and Mumbai supply water 4-5 hours a day on an average, some cities like Hyderabad deliver water every other day. Yet, water resources may be abundant, ranging from 341 litres pcpd in Goa to 105 litres in Bharatpur (see chart).

Urban water supply assumes importance as by 2020 around half of Indians will be living in cities. To tackle the leaking-bucket malaise once and for all, some civil servants in Delhi and Bangalore are working hard to make 24x7 supply of safe, potable water a reality. The Karnataka Urban Water Sector Improvement Project (Kuwasip), the Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project (GBWASP) and the Delhi Water Supply and Sewerage Project (DWSSP) will, if they succeed, change the face of India's most beleaguered infrastructure sector forever.

The common thread that binds all is the recognition that India's water problem is not a supply but a resource management problem. Over time, poor management of supply and distribution has worsened the situation even in Delhi which has historically had abundant water. Result: most water utilities are saddled with huge losses and the states with subsidies. India spends at least $1.1 billion a year on water sector subsidies (including rural irrigation) and 98 per cent of these come from state budgets, says Meiko Van Ginneken, water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank in Washington.

The projects also aim to make people pay for quality water, and not waste water. In Delhi, non-revenue water (including free water) is close to 60 per cent and leakage is 40 per cent.

In the past decade, as municipalities have increasingly defaulted on supply and quality, citizens have turned to costly alternatives. The packaged water industry is now a Rs 10,000-crore-and-rising industry. Then there is the expensive, on-line household water treatment and supply boosting equipment industry.

A recent study in six A-class cities (Indore, Nagpur, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai) notes that in three of these, the contribution of groundwater towards meeting the city's domestic and municipal water requirements ranges between 72 per cent and 99 per cent. Several also have a thriving tanker water economy, supplying around 14-55 million litres per day. Many South Delhi residents and slum areas perpetually live off tankers.

Forget those who can afford such spending on water, even the poorest pay for water in terms of substantial health cost, and a waste of time queuing up or trudging long distances to fetch water. And the rich who often waste water get unnecessary subsidies.

"We have done an 8,000-household study on quality and willingness to pay. Almost 94 per cent of the water is unfit for consumption. Suburban water is contaminated. Naturally, then, people are willing to pay for safe tap water."

Yet, despite the seemingly lucrative business opportunities, private firms have rarely come forward to participate in the sector. They found it a risky investment because of a) high political and regulatory uncertainty, b) low returns and long payback periods, c) low tariffs, subsidy and affordability issues, d) imperfect basic business data (pipes are all underground) and the political dimensions of water and user charges.

The Bank is funding Kuwasip and the Delhi project to the extent of $39.5 million and $140 million, respectively. The operating agencies' contributions are $11.6 million by kuidfc and $106 million by Delhi Jal Board. Both are high-level technical and management assistance programmes aimed at plugging leakages and improving service delivery—there is no downsizing of staff, no radical restructuring, except of mapping, engineering, building and distribution management.

Kuwasip (loan sanctioned on April 8) is being implemented in parts of Belgaum, Gulbarga and Hubli-Dharwad towns of Karnataka in the first four-year phase, to be extended to the rest of the area in the next phase covering less than two lakh people. Compagnie Generale Des Eaux Seureca JV was selected by competitive bidding for the performance-based contract. Out of eight works packages, bids have been invited for six. The first two years will be crucial as service and willingness to pay will be tested.

The Delhi project, too, is a small leap in the dark. The South II and III zones—the most water-scarce regions—selected as test cases have a population of two lakh and will be catered to by the Sonia Vihar plant, expected to go online September.

But the most interesting experiment may be incubating in Greater Bangalore, a state and public-funded greenfield project for piped supply of water in an area mostly serviced by borewells, an area bigger than the city itself and housing all the new developments and industrial showpieces. The beneficiary capital contribution is 35 per cent of the entire project cost of Rs 340.55 crore—it is the residents who want connections who have contributed and thus become stakeholders. "The fees range from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000. We have already collected Rs 40 crore," says a happy Krishnan. Of course, some money will be raised through government-guaranteed loans, too.

Ninety per cent of the cost in a water system is in distribution. So, efficient management will remain the key to solving urban water supply problems. The world over, cities are buying water from farmers (in China and the US), from other cities (Los Angeles, Santiago), even other countries (Singapore buys its entire water from Malaysia). Indian states mostly use free water, often at the cost of huge disputes. It only has international water rights. The future then lies in putting in place domestic water rights to ensure sustained supply.

[drwho]

nice article kronik


scary isnt it when water is in babus hands?

the article points out the fact that:

"In the past decade, as municipalities have increasingly defaulted on supply and quality, citizens have turned to costly alternatives. The packaged water industry is now a Rs 10,000-crore-and-rising industry. Then there is the expensive, on-line household water treatment and supply boosting equipment industry."

"We have done an 8,000-household study on quality and willingness to pay. Almost 94 per cent of the water is unfit for consumption. Suburban water is contaminated. Naturally, then, people are willing to pay for safe tap water."

This shows that people are willing to pay for water,in other words supply and demand-structure works.

the problem is this:

"Yet, despite the seemingly lucrative business opportunities, private firms have rarely come forward to participate in the sector. They found it a risky investment because of a) high political and regulatory uncertainty, b) low returns and long payback periods, c) low tariffs, subsidy and affordability issues, d) imperfect basic business data (pipes are all underground) and the political dimensions of water and user charges."

[kronik]

With the President speaking for it, hopefully rainwater harvesting will now get a boost all over the country.

Make water harvesting mandatory: Kalam

[drwho]

UP govt to enforce rain water harvesting

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...s/14251308.htm

[Luckystreak]

Indian states plan to link rivers

The first(??) step in the direction of vajpayees dream of linking all the rivers.

The leaders of two Indian states have signed a historic deal to link two rivers in an attempt to combat drought.
As part of the deal, surplus water from the Ken river will be diverted to the Betwa river, in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

A 231km long canal will be constructed to link the two rivers, the Press Trust of India reports.

The project is expected to cost about 40bn rupees ($915m) and take between five and 10 years to complete.

The previous Indian government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had launched an ambitious plan to link 30 rivers across India to overcome recurring problems of floods and drought.

But the plan has been opposed by environmentalists.

The sharing of river waters has also led to tensions among some states, the most outstanding example being Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

These two southern states have been fighting for over a century over the Cauvery river.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4183584.stm

[drwho]

Andy Mukherjee on how capitalism can solve a water crisis.

Forget Oil -- India's Bigger Problem Is Water: Andy Mukherjee

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- For all the hand-wringing over how much rising oil prices might hurt India's expanding economy, a dearth of water could present a bigger threat.

India produces 15 percent of its food and meets 80 percent of its household needs by ``mining'' its fast-depleting groundwater. By 2025, three out of five aquifers in India will be in critical condition, the World Bank said in a recent study.

According to the bank's estimates, by 2050 demand in India will exceed all available supplies.

In many cities, water scarcity has already assumed crisis proportions. In the Indian capital of New Delhi, which was my home for 11 years, taps are mostly dry except for brief periods in the morning and evening. What trickles out of the taps during those precious minutes is neither odorless nor colorless.

No one in my neighborhood drank this liquid or used it for cooking. People bought water from the grocer in 20-liter (5.3 gallons) cans.

That was the situation four years ago. Since then, the shortages have worsened. Water tariffs have gone up, service levels haven't.

Those with the money to pump groundwater and purify it at home have the semblance of a solution. The poor and middle class living in government housing are at the mercy of a state that doesn't have the means to do any better even if it wanted to.

``Unless dramatic changes are made,'' the bank's study said, ``and made soon in the way in which the government manages water, India will have neither the cash to maintain and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for the economy and the people.''

Running Out of Water

The good news is that help is on its way.

Between 2005 and 2008, the World Bank will make available $3.2 billion for Indian water projects, a fourfold rise from the previous four years. What's better, the bank has come up with a concrete proposal for Delhi.

The solution proposed by the bank envisages that the Delhi Water Board, the state-run utility, will pay private companies to manage the water supply. The board, and its infrastructure, will continue to be publicly owned.

The plan, which has the support of the Delhi government, already has social activists baying for World Bank's blood.

State's Responsibility?

A part of the tirade has nothing to do with what's being proposed; it's all about who's proposing it. The World Bank has its critics everywhere, and India is no exception.

A more substantial objection to the proposal is that the state should be barred from abdicating its responsibility to providing something as basic to life as water.

This argument is untenable in the Indian context. How can the state relinquish a responsibility that it has already surrendered?

The Delhi Water Board has 27,000 employees serving 1.5 million connections. That's a lofty 18 utility personnel for each 1,000 users. Yet, the board distributes only 60 percent of the piped water it produces; and it collects just 80 percent of the bills it issues. The utility is owed more by its customers than it bills in a year.

The net result: The board has $1.1 billion in debt, most of it owed to the Delhi government.

Serious Objections

Arvind Kejriwal, who runs Parivartan, a citizen's group in New Delhi, has raised doubts about incentives. According to him, the performance goals for the proposed private operators are too lax; achieving them won't improve anything.

While it's possible to fix such design flaws without dumping the concept, Kejriwal has a more fundamental objection. ``The bank expects inefficient and corrupt governments which submerged their water utilities to make private companies perform,'' he says. ``The contradiction is obvious.''

Kejriwal has a point. A more efficient alternative could be to allow private water suppliers to charge people directly for their services; the supplier, which could be a multinational such as Veolia Environnment SA or Suez SA, a local company, or even a citizens' cooperative, will pay the board a fee both for buying its water and for using its infrastructure.

Making Private Water Work

As long as people have several service providers to choose from -- and a regulator lays down tariffs, fees and service and infrastructure standards -- they will get good water around the clock. Users would then be willing to pay more for water; inefficient service providers would, over time, sell their licenses to the more efficient ones; the board's financial situation would improve.

There are 35 large urban centers in India, each with a population of 1 million or more. In most of them, as well as in smaller towns and villages, water is an everyday story of humiliation. It's also a drag on India's agricultural and industrial productivity and economic growth.

Oil, however expensive, is at least available. Water is already in short supply in India and getting scarcer. The world's second-most populous nation has a window of opportunity to avert its impending water crisis. It mustn't lose it.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...d=aRVdbfvMQ9w8

[Effer]

Hopefully India will take use of the money.

[kronik]

The Gods have blessed us with rain with enough water to satiate theentire billion people, yet we let it drain away.

Steps India needs to enforce asap: Rain water harvesting and massive reforestation.

[Naga_Solidus]

lets all invest in fuel-cells for power generation and use the output as our drinking water!

[drwho]

Originally Posted by kronik

The Gods have blessed us with rain with enough water to satiate theentire billion people, yet we let it drain away.

Steps India needs to enforce asap: Rain water harvesting and massive reforestation.

true. Rain water harvesting is a very effective way to collect fresh water. But to distribute it i would go for creating a free market in water-sector.

here is one company in Singapore that has managed to handle water markets effectively:

http://www.hyflux.com/

[RafflesCity]

There was an interview by BBC Hardtalk on this I think.

They interviewed a female person...it was quite interesting, she spoke well and explained the situation

[python]

The Delhi Metro is doing Rain Water Harvesting at most of the Metro stations on the Indraprastha - Dwarka Subcity metro line as an environmental protection measure. Rain Water Harvesting is being done at Pragati Maidan, Palika Place, Jhandewalan, Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar, Shadipur, Kirti Nagar, Moti Nagar, Ramesh Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Tagore Garden, Subhash Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Ganesh Nagar, Janak Puri, Uttam Nagar East, Uttam Nagar West, Om Vihar, Dwarka Mor, Dwarka and Dwarka Subcity Metro stations. The DMRC has included Rain Water Harvesting as part of its station construction contract and is considering the same for Phase Two of the Metro Project as well.
This initiative of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will help in recharging the ground water in Delhi as the Metro has establishing large catchment areas at the above stations wherein storage tanks have been made to collect the rain water as in Jhandewalan Metro station the storage tank is 5000 sq.mtrs approximately while in Karol Bagh and Rajendra Place it is around 6000 sq.mtrs. The catchment areas have been optimally designed keeping in view the expected intensity of Rainfall.
The water from these catchment areas located at Metro stations diverts the rain water from the roof tops catchments by drain pipes to settlement/ filtration tanks which clean the water before storing them in borewells which are underground and located below the stations. The approximate area of each borewell is around 16sq. mtrs. The storage capacity of each borewell is in the range of 28000 litres annually.

[drwho]

BBC:Leaking Indian lake poisons water

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4566716.stm

[kronik]

EU boost to clean Ganga efforts

For providing safe drinking water to north Indian cities, the European Union in collaboration with several Indian institutes has decided to start an “EU-India River Bank Filtration network”.

Starting from Haridwar, the partnership aims to introduce a time-tested natural technique of water filtration along river Ganga, which is in vogue in Europe for the past century to provide chemical-free safe drinking water to the general masses.

Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Centre for Flood Management Studies, Patna and Integrated Hydro Development Forum, Patna are the Indian partners who will be involved in studying the concept of river bank filtration techniques at some north Indian cities like Haridwar, Varanasi and Patna in the beginning.

In this technique, wells on the banks of rivers getting naturally filtered water were dug, and drinking water needs of the peoplecatered to. It has been found that this filtered natural water is devoid of impurities usually found in surface water of the rivers.

Since this technique was found successful in some European countries, it was decided to try the technique on the banks of the river Ganga, which is one of the most polluted rivers and where the cost of cleaning the surface water is high.

The experiment to be done at Haridwar, Varanasi and Patna will be studied further by Indian and EU scientists with an aim to provide safe drinking water to the population.