NMCG & TERI Launch Centre of Excellence on Water Reuse

NEW DELHI: The NMCG-TERI Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Water Reuse was launched by the Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at the TERI Headquarters in New Delhi. Through collaboration between NMCG and TERI, the CoE on Water Reuse is the first of its type in the country.

The CoE is a four-way partnership involving NMCG, TERI, industrial partners, and trade associations. It will achieve the Ganga Knowledge Centre’s (GKC) goals of designing and fostering research and innovation. The goal is to identify knowledge gaps for research, and the need for new ideas to support targeted research and drive and nurture essential innovation. For example, low-cost, effective, and integrated treatment technologies that could fill the gaps in current treatment, increase capacity, and deliver safe treated water for reuse. As a result, this CoE is the first of its kind that will correspond to the GKC activities.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, DG, NMCG, said at the event that wastewater after treatment should be used as much as possible. The goal of cleaning the Ganga, or a river, or a city, is to make them sustainable in the long run; sustainability in the sense of viewing it as a resource that can be reused rather than rejecting it as garbage. To effectively handle water reuse, he stressed the importance of collaborations with stakeholders, particularly research institutes and enterprises. He noted that there is a need to have conversations with businesses that are working on wastewater treatment, constructing treatment plants, increasing water reuse, and providing treated water for safe reuse.

Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI, stressed in her speech that cutting-edge research should aim to benefit the greater community. “Laboratory research is of limited use,” Dr Dhawan remarked, noting that TERI has always collaborated closely with industry and other stakeholders. She stressed that not only from an economic standpoint, but also as a sustainability strategy, treating wastewater at the source is critical.

According to Dr S K Sarkar, Distinguished Fellow and Senior Director, TERI’s Water Resources Division, traditional wastewater treatment and reuse technologies have limitations, necessitating the development of new technologies. He noted that establishing this Center of Excellence will aid in the advancement of such technology efforts.