Water Atm Plant At Kalrawas, Bawal, Rewari, Haryana

Kalrawas village is located in Bawal tehsil of Rewari district in Haryana, India. It is situated 14 km away from sub-district headquarter Bawal (tehsildar office) and 3 km away from district headquarter Rewari. Kalrawas is also a gram panchayat, headed by an elected Sarpanch.

The total geographical area of the village is 204 hectares. According to Census 2011, Kalrawas has a total population of 1,239 persons, out of which male population is 657 while female population is 582. Literacy rate of kalrawas village is 70.14% out of which 79.15% males and 59.97% females are literate. There are about 230 houses in Kalrawas village.

NEED FOR WATER TREATMENT

• A recent study conducted by the Water Resources Ministry in August 2018, and a comparative analysis of the data by ‘The Tribune’, suggests that salinity content in water is the highest in Haryana.
  • Many areas in Haryana has the highest presence of debilitating Fluoride pollutant with 20 units (against standard up to 1.5 mg/l), followed by 19 units in some areas in Punjab.
  • Punjab is affected the most due to the presence of nitrate in the region, some places having 65 mg /l, followed by up to 60 mg/ in Haryana.
  • The presence of the dangerous Arsenic content is highest in Haryana, at 15 units above the norm of 0.01mg/l against 10 units in Punjab.
  • Haryana has the maximum iron content measuring 17 units against standard above 1mg/l, followed by 9 units in Punjab
  • Presence of lead is the highest in Haryana with 17 units above 0.01 mg/l, followed by 6 units in Punjab.
• According to the data provided by the Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation, around 80,827 persons in Haryana were affected due to the presence of heavy metals in drinking water. Around 36,000 persons are affected due to fluoride contamination, about 15,489 due to salinity of water and 6,705 due to iron content in drinking water.
• According to a TOI article published in March, 2018 12,000 persons died of cancer in Haryana over the last three years. The then health minister of Haryana, confirmed that 4,592 persons died due to cancer in all 22 districts in 2017 with the highest of 771 deaths reported in Faridabad.
• With the maximum share in overall deaths due to cancer in the country, Haryana stood at 39.6%, as per the data released in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) report, October 2017.

SCOPE OF PARTNERSHIP

APL Logistics VASCOR Automotive Pvt. Ltd. expressed interest for making a social investment through their CSR fund for dealing with the water contamination issue in Haryana leading to a huge surge in Cancer cases. After discussion with APL we collectively identified Kalrawas village within Bawal Tehsil after reconnaissance survey of 8 villages in the vicinity, as the potential site to set up the proposed water treatment plant on account of APL’s local presence through their Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Bawal.

Prima facie, the generic data from the Central Ground Water Board indicates presence of salinity, fluoride, nitrate, iron etc. in ground water at different areas in Rewari. However, such sweeping water quality data was not adequate for designing an efficient system for purification of water. Hence, customized water and soil testing were undertaken in order to design an appropriate and efficient system of water treatment.

Sulabh International Social Service Organisation (SISSO) in collaboration with International Academy of Environmental Sanitation and Public Health (IAESPH) were happy to provide support to APL Logistics for setting up the water treatment plant and APL Logistics Vascor Automotive Pvt. Ltd. agreed to provide 70% funds under their CSR activity, SISSO making up for the balance project cost.

The Technology

There are numerous technologies for cleaning contaminated water. The choice depends on the main contaminants present and their percentage. In Arsenic affected village areas in West Bengal, we have successfully demonstrated a simple yet affordable system of producing safe water by using surface water. The cost, the skill set requirement, operation and maintenance cost are reasonable compared to the chemical processes for removal of Arsenic. This technology may be termed as an ‘Appropriate Technology’ for places where there are perennial sources of surface water in abundance. Our simple systems are being operated by the respective village cooperatives for the past five years. We provide a tailor-made system based on the water quality of the source water. The technology is often a combination of slow sand filtration followed by filtering with different pore size filters (macro-filtration, micro-filtration, ultra-filtration), adsorption, active carbon filter, UV ray exposure (minimum 30 seconds) etc. However, the choices are very limited when the source water has very high TDS (total dissolved solids). In view of a village site where only tested technology and ease of repair and maintenance are of paramount importance, a reverse osmosis technology (RO) was chosen.

The Facility

On the basis of the ground situation including demand from neighbouring villages, a facility with a designed production capacity of 15000 liters per day was planned, which would cater to drinking water needs of about 3000- 4000 persons. After thorough analysis of relevant water samples, the treatment facility was designed with the help of selected technology partner.

The facility would fill the potable water in a clean vessel of 10 liters capacity and sell to the village consumers at a nominal cost. The plant is housed in a properly designed covered shed on the land provided by the Panchayat.

On 30.06.2022, The plant was inaugurated by Mr. Ashish Bhatt, Chief Operating Officer, APL Logistics VASCOR Automotive Pvt. Ltd. on 30th June 2022, in the presence of Senior officials from APL, SISSO, IAESPH, Sarpanch of Kalrawas and a large number of villagers.