When planning a smart city infrastructure, a lot of emphasis is given on infrastructure and transportation development, whereas water management should be the top priority. For now in a smart city development plan, the treatment of waste water, smart metering and quality monitoring are the only water management plans being introduced into. How the water catchments are being linked to smart cities to ensure sustainable supply of water, there is not planning for it. There is no clear policy on treatment of wastewater both industrial and domestic.
Regional Director of a London-headquartered non-profit organization, Asia-Pacific, International Water Association mentions the fact that in urban areas wetlands, ponds and lakes are not recognized as a critical natural source of water but are being claimed for infrastructure development and the natural resources demolished. When wastewater is managed in a better way being treated properly, such water can used for agriculture, industrial use and even domestic gardening or flushing purposes.
There are countries like Singapore which uses high quality treatment plants for wastewater. Almost all the waste water is treated and converted to usable water be it for home use or industrial use. One more fact is that the supply of drinking water in Singapore comes entirely from treating waste water.
Another example of better water conservation can be seen in city like Copenhagen where treatment of waste water is done with the help of leading edge technologies but also with natural treatment methods like use of wetlands. Even the water released into the sea is not without treatment.
To ensure better water saving, the way we approach urban planning and management needs to be revalued. The main source of water supply to cities need to be connected in an efficient way to ensure sustainable water supply. Since most of the water sources today are polluted to dangerous level and several others sources which are not polluted but are also under the effect of serious depletion due to high usage.
The reason that many Indian cities are yet to provide 24/7 water supply to the citizens is because of the water loss and inefficiency of water management system. The main priority of the government should be to create better water management system both at the source and while treatment of waste water. Most eco friendly flats for sale in zirakpur however use green building measures to ensure that optimum usage of ground water is done and it is also replenished regularly by rain water harvesting.
Ground water level extraction and regeneration should also be given utmost importance. Almost nonexistence promotion of rain water rainwater harvesting is the leading reason for drastic drop in ground water level.
The lack of coordination between water resource department and urban planning is also a challenge for better water management. If responsibilities are fixed for every department, then we can create an efficient way to provide effective waste water management.
By reusing the water we can save our natural resources and help in replenishing the ground water level which have fallen to alarming levels in the past decade.
