BWSSB building a web portal to sell treated water

Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is developing a website to market treated water in the city.

The effort is a step forward in the agency’s aggressive promotion of water from the Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) for purposes other than drinking.

The water board is also aiming to make treated water easily available across the city, as it would use the web portal to target the reluctant users who often give transportation as an issue.

“Building the website is at a primary level,” BWSSB chairman Tushar Girinath told DH. “Though treated water is available in plenty, it’s going waste due to lack of awareness and publicity. Treated water is generally released through the sanitary line. We want to stop (such wastage) and have come up with the portal to effectively reach the public.”

Besides offering treated water from the STPs owned by the BWSSB, the portal would work as an online marketplace for private apartments and commercial units wanting to sell excess treated water. The private players have to just register at the portal to gain access.

The BWSSB has already asked private STP owners to make separate storage space for treated water and use it for non-drinking purposes through duel piping system. It has also refused to give permission to dig borewells if the purpose is mentioned as construction. Offering a marketplace through the portal is one more way the Board would prompt construction sites to compulsorily use treated water.

The Board, on the other hand, is also trying to ensure that the treated water from private partners is of good quality. “This’s something we’ve to do if we’re joining hands with private players,” BWSSB’s chief engineer for wastewater management Nithyananda Kumar said. “We’re trying to work out a way to do that.”