THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, DELHI
Lt. Governor Sh. Anil Baijal inspects the LOTUS project at Barapullah Drain, Sun Dial Park, Sarai Kale Khan – an India Netherlands collaboration.
The unique initiative of Deptt. of Biotechnology, GOI would benefit community at large, hence needs to be scalable and replicable: LG
Benefits of the project include not only swacchata but clean water for industrial, agricultural and community use also – LG
Hon’ble Lt Governor Shri Anil Baijal today visited the site of LOTUS project at the Barapullah Drain, Sun Dial Park, Sarai Kale Khan. He was accompanied by Prof. K VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, GoI, Dr. Shailja Vaidya Guta, Adviser, DBT, Prof. T R Sreekrishnan, Project coordinator and Dean IIT Delhi, Sh Udai Pratap Singh, Vice Chairman DDA, Sh. Keshav Chandra, CEO, DJB, Ms. Varsha Joshi, Secretary Power and Sh S.B.K. Singh, Special Commissioner, Law and Order, Delhi Police and other senior officers.
Prof. VijayRaghvan informed that the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Government of Netherlands are implementing the project LOTUS HR (Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse) (Swachh Barapullah) and is a joint Indo-Netherlands collaborative project.
He appreciated the concept and congratulated the Department of Biotechnology for this unique initiative. The Lt. Governor observed that smooth coordination between different departments involved in the project viz. DJB, DDA, Power, IIT Delhi, Environment and Forest was necessary for a win-win partnership. He advised that the project should be a node for government-community-science interaction and awareness hub.
Lt. Governor was informed that the benefits emerging from the project have far reaching effects: swacchata, clean water for industrial, agricultural and community use and recycling and reuse of the waste water for both recovery of waste and generation of gas/power that would benefit all sectors.
Prof. VijayRaghavan explained that the goal of LOTUS project is to develop water treatment technologies for pollutant removal including the heavy metal as well as new and emerging contaminants which usually go undetected in existing traditional sewage treatment plants.
DBT in consultation with DDA has identified the Barapullah drain , Sarai Kale Khan, in the state of Delhi as a demonstration site for the proposed interdisciplinary technological solutions. Barapullah is a 12.5 km long drain responsible for about 30% of pollution in the Yamuna river, collecting mainly domestic sewage and waste from small industry.
“This project aims to demonstrate a novel holistic waste-water management approach, that will produce clean water which can be reused for various proposes while simultaneously recovering nutrients and energy from the urban waste water, thus converting drain into profitable mines”, said the LG. The Lt. Governor desired that the pilot project under implementation should gradually be developed as a successful model that is scalable and replicable.