To promote treatment plant, Kejri drinks processed water

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday drank a glass of treated sewage water in a gesture to promote sewage treatment plants in the capital.

 “The city needs hundreds of such plants to meet the ever-increasing need for drinking water,” Kejriwal said while inaugurating the first sewage treatment plant at Keshopur.
It is a joint venture by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and an NGO called Social Awareness,  Newer Alternatives (SANA).

The Delhi chief minister said such plants can be the solution for the increasing need for drinking water across the city, including the unplanned colonies. “Water can be produced from raw sewage at the local level at small plants such as this,” Kejriwal said.

He said around 50 per cent of the city was still not covered by sewer pipelines whereas 20 per cent area was yet to be covered by drinking water pipelines.

The Delhi government is due to set up a drinking water dispenser at the Secretariat, which will be fed by a sewage treatment plant, for promoting potable water treated from sewage.
“It is a part of a an initiative to promote the toilet-to-tap sewage treatment plants in the city and fight the stigma associated with drinking treated sewage – a practice common in the West,” said an official.

The announcement on the proposed dispenser at the Secretariat was made by the DJB Chairman Kapil Mishra. The DJB has tied up with SANA for generating treated sewage water of potable quality. SANA has installed a water-purifying station which can produce around 4,000 litres of clean water in an hour.