Pavitra ganga, unlocking wastewater treatment, water reuse and resource recovery opportunities for urban and peri-urban areas in India

The overexploitation of India’s water resources, as a results of a fast population growth, industrialisation, urbanisation, combined with pollution issues and climate change have placed the country amongst the most water stressed countries in the world. To help solve India’s water crisis the EU project PAVITRA GANGA, aims to deliver cost effective and energy efficient solutions for the treatment and reuse of wastewater with resource recovery in urban and peri-urban regions of India.

Ganga, India

Launched in February 2019 under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 821051), and co-funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, the project is coordinated by the Energy and Resources Institute (India) and WRE member Vito (Belgium). Its missions are to:

• Create policy and social support for innovative technologies through engagement of stakeholders, suggesting water government solutions and supporting policy makers.
• Map, evaluate and improve promising wastewater treatment and reuse technologies, that can address Indian challenges in an efficient manner.
• Deliver actionable, robust, smart, and comprehensive solutions for quality and quantity monitoring, control and management of water resources
• Validate the selected innovative technologies for real water challenges in Indian settings at open-innovation test sites
• Establish long lasting cooperation in capacity building and knowledge sharing
• Establish future market uptake and post-project exploitation of the demonstrated innovations

To ensure maximum impact, the project integrates three key dimensions: social, environmental and economical. Through the social dimension of the project, the partners are raising awareness of the technologies tested for the treatment and reuse of wastewater through a participatory monitoring approach. In terms of environmental impact, the project aims to reduce pollution issues associated with the release of organic pollutants, heavy metals and emerging contaminants, hence helping to regenerate Indian streams. Finally, the project applies circular economy principles through energy production from waste, water reuse and resources recovery using cost effective solution specifically adapted to the Indian market.

For this purpose, the project will be testing a set of innovative at two demonstration sites located in New Delhi and Kanpur. These include:

• AndicosTM (Anaerobic Digestion by Combining Organic Waste and Sewage): A system consisting of filtration through membranes and membrane concentrate processing through a digester with biogas and organic fertilizer production.
• Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor: A technology combining the advantages of conventional activated sludge (CAS) systems with micro/ultra-membrane filtration.
• Self-Forming Dynamic Membrane BioReactor (SFD- MBR): It is an improvement of an ultrafiltration-based MBR where solid liquid separation is done through a self-forming cake layer that develops on a carrying surface.
• Clean blocks: These consist of mineral wool cubes used to treat sewage by the biological activity within the filters.
• Photo Activated Sludge (PAS): A technology where mixed biomass of algae (and phototrophic cyanobacteria) and selected bacteria are specifically grown for nutrient removal.
• Structured adsorbents: Developed sorbents are shaped into granulates enabling their application in column set-ups with high hydraulic conductivity, which are easily replaceable and safe.
• Constructed Wetland Plus (CWplus): It combines vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCW) with adsorptive elements and specific sorbents for the removal of heavy metals.

You can keep informed of the Pavitra Ganga project activities by visiting the project website at: https://pavitra-ganga.eu/en  or by following them on their social media channels:

You can also subscribe to the project newsletter at: https://pavitra-ganga.eu/en/news/newsletter

Image by Rajesh Balouria from Pixabay