Dutch royals visit waste water treatment project

An Indo-Dutch collaboration on successfully treating waste water on a stretch of the Barapullah Drain to make it fit for non-drinking purposes, saw King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands visit the project site in the national capital on Monday.

The visit began with a presentation on the success of the "Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse" (LOTUSHR) phase one project, and sharing of the plan for the second phase of LOTUSHR.

This was followed by a series of presentations and demonstrations by young professionals on how various approaches and technologies for water treatment could help LOTUSHR phase two.

The presentations included four solutions to the challenge of "Design a Water experience center" organised by the Dutch Wetskills foundation and commissioned by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the Netherlands embassy and BIRAC from India. The visit ended with the launch of LOTUSHR phase by The King and The Queen.

Along with The King and The Queen, the visit to the drain was attended by Minister of Science and Technology - Harsh Vardhan. Other delegates present were Theo den Bieman, Project Manager LOTUShr also host, K.V. Raghavan, Principal Scientific advisor, A. Baijal, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Renu Swarup, Secretary Department of Biotechnology, H.W. van den Doel, member of the NWO Executive Board, Mr P.J. Duisenberg, chairman of the VSNU, T.R. Sreekrishnan, professor of Biochemical Engineering, Prof. M. de Kreuk, professor of Environmental Technology at TU Delft.

The Indo-Dutch collaboration LOTUS HR was launched in May 2017.

The LOTUSHR project aims to demonstrate a novel holistic (waste-) water management approach, that will produce clean water that can be reused for various proposes (e.g. industry, agriculture, construction etc.), while simultaneously recovering nutrients and energy from the urban waste water, thus converting drain into profitable mines. Special attention will be paid to pathogen removal and removing conventional and emerging pollutants (which are only partly retained in the existing wastewater treatment plants).

Partnering Institutes from the Indian side are: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) New Delhi, National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) Nagpur, while from the Dutch side, they are : Technical University (TU) Delft, Institute for Water Education in partnership with UNESCO, The Netherlands, Wageningen University, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), and Vrije Universiteit.

The companies involved are: Shell India, Berson UV, Nijhuis Industries, HWL, Hydrorock, IPstar, Alterra, AA RIKILT, Scholte holding B.V., JCI Industries, STOWA, LEAF, Killian Water, Waste, Greenyard Horticulture Belgium NV.

In May 2017, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and NWO, the Netherlands Science Agency, announced a joint call for proposals for cleaning the Barapullah drain. DBT in consultation with DDA identified the Barapullah drain, Sarai Kale Khan, in the state of Delhi for setting up on-site experimental testing lab and for the establishment of a pilot plant. DDA leased to DBT, a land measuring 200 Sq meters for a period of 5years adjacent to the Sun Dial Park for this purpose The 1.6 million litres of waste water that is produced daily in the capital, passes through the 20 km long Barapullah drain and discharges into the Yamuna river that eventually flows into the Ganga.

The Barapullah drain is one of the main water transport ways in New Delhi that collects water from smaller water drains from all over the city. In the dry season it is mainly used for sewage transport, during the monsoon also water run-off is transported via the drain.

Design a "Water Experience Center" - A challenge

A team of young professionals from India and the Netherlands worked for 10 days on a design challenge to scale up the current water research venue at the Sun Dial Park in Delhi.

The challenge is to design a "Water Experience Center" which is connected to public andA schools for awareness and education on water- and circular solutions. But also for enterprises and startups this is an ideal landing spot for piloting and testing innovative water technologies.

Dutch and Indian researchers are creating new technologies for waste water treatment and water re use in the LOTUS project. For this project a research facility has been built on the banks of the Barapullah drain. Dutch and Indian government officials decided to explore opportunities for expanding this unique venue, said a Dutch embassy statement.

The results of this competition will be used as input for the realization of the Water Experience Center.