„Safe Water Supply in Developing Countries“

Internationale Konferenz an der Hochschule Karlsruhe

Am 12. Oktober 2016 fand an der Hochschule Karlsruhe – Technik und Wirtschaft gemeinsam mit den Stadtwerken Karlsruhe in Kooperation mit der University of Surrey, dem Deutschen Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches (DVGW) und dem DVGW-Technologiezentrum Wasser (TZW) in Karlsruhe die Fachkonferenz „Safe Water Supply in Developing Countries“ statt.

Rückblick: Die Tagung befasste sich mit den rechtlichen, organisatorischen und technischen Aspekten der Trinkwasserversorgung sowie mit der notwendigen und angepassten Wasseraufbereitung in Entwicklungsländern – ein Thema, das nicht zuletzt durch die im September 2015 auf dem UN-Gipfel in New York verabschiedete „Agenda 2030 für nachhaltige Entwicklung“, aber auch im Kontext der aktuellen Flüchtlingsproblematik wieder stärker in den Fokus rückt.

Zwei Vorträge gingen auf die spezielle Situation in Indien ein. Der Vortrag von Dr. Devendra P. Saroj von der Universität Surrey in Großbritannien handelte von den speziellen Herausforderungen ländlicher Wasserversorgungssysteme und Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Rohns von den Stadtwerken Düsseldorf berichtete über ein Kooperations-Zentrum für Uferfiltration in Haridwar.

Mit ca. 140 Teilnehmern ist die Konferenz aus Sicht der Organisatoren und nach den Rückmeldungen der Referenten und Teilnehmer sehr erfolgreich verlaufen. Erfreulicherweise waren auch viele Studierende unter den Teilnehmern, die von der z.T. sehr großen Auslandserfahrung der Referenten profitieren konnten. Und möglicherweise wurde dabei auch bei dem ein oder anderen das Interesse an einer Tätigkeit nach dem Studium im Bereich der Wasserversorgung in Entwicklungsländern geweckt. (mg)

The Cooperation Centre for Riverbank Filtration in Hardiwar (India): a story about effort and success?  Sandhu, T. Grischek, C. Wagner, H.-P. Rohns

The beginning

The Cooperation Centre for Riverbank Filtration (CCRBF) was created in 2007 with the vision to contribute to a further improvement of the drinking water quality and the reduction of waterborne diseases in India by using the natural water treatment technique of riverbank filtration (RBF). The CCRBF was initially established through an agreement between the Stadtwerke Duesseldorf AG (SWD), the Division of Water Sciences at the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTWD), the water supply organization of the state of Uttarakhand in India (Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan / UJS) and the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) with initial funding provided by SWD. In order to achieve a successful and result-oriented collaboration in water resources management and RBF in particular, it was recognized that a long-term cooperation and the continuation of transfer of knowledge would be essential, e.g. through the initiation of new projects. In order to achieve these objectives, the CCRBF was registered as an NGO in 2008 under the Societies Registration Act of India.

Milestones and success-stories

The initial funding provided by the SWD enabled the CCRBF’s partners to conduct interdisciplinary applied research on RBF and related processes, to do projects to develop capacity of Indian water supply organisations, R&D institutions, universities and policy makers (training courses), to enhance rural RBF schemes in Uttarakhand, conduct research marketing activities (workshops, public information material, demonstration projects / sites), support student projects and strengthen the cooperation between water supply organizations and universities. A major milestone of the CCRBF was the creation of the RBF demonstration site in Haridwar that was recognised by the UNESCO IAH Managed Aquifer Recharge Network (MAR-NET) in 2009. Consequently UJS was provided with an impetus to develop RBF at five new sites in Uttarakhand (since 2010). These activities were co-funded by the former GTZ (presently GIZ, 2008), Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF, 2008-2011), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD – A New Passage to India, 2009-2016), Department of Science and Technology of India (2010-2013) and the European Commission (Saph Pani, 2011-2014). As a result of this funding, the CCRBF currently employs a resource-person in Dehradun who provides information on RBF-related topics.

Outlook

A current project (NIRWINDU) of the HTWD addresses robust disinfection, flood protection and water quality monitoring for RBF water supply (BMBF, 2015-2018). Other tangible results of the CCRBF since 2007 include the organization of internships for 50 HTWD students with UJS and IITR and organization of visits of at least 35 Indian engineers and students to HTWD, SWD and other institutions and water supply companies in Germany. Furthermore, these activities enabled the CCRBF partners to contribute to the “Indo-German Workshop on Science-based Master Planning for Bank Filtration Water Supply in India” organized by HTWD in April 2014. The workshop was funded by the Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC). As a result, a concept for a master plan was evolved, with the goal to achieve at least 5 % drinking water supply in India by RBF by 2030.

The long-term objective of the CCRBF is to propagate RBF in India as a viable natural treatment technology and to develop and implement the science-based master plan for RBF water supply in India. The dynamic hydro-climatic conditions (monsoon floods, droughts) and volatile socio-political factors (lack of long-term vision and commitment by state governments, uncertain funding) in India require continuous pursuit by the CCRBF partners. The modification of technology to suit field conditions is a challenging task to experts of both the countries. While the German side has to focus on innovative post-treatment coupled to RBF, the Indian side has to select and develop new RBF sites and to create sufficient industrial competence required to match the development of these new sites to achieve the 5 % RBF water supply target. Consequently there is significant scope for creating new market opportunities in both countries for customizing innovations. In this context, SWD and UJS have successfully cooperated with scientific support from HTWD and IITR within the framework of the CCRBF.

Dr Devendra Saroj

Centre for Environmental and Health Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Surrey, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom

Title: Special Challenges of Rural Water Supply Systems- A case study of rural India

Abstract:

India is a developing country with current population exceeding one billion. It is estimated that over 30 million people in India are affected by waterborne diseases every year. Over 1.5 million children die of diarrhoea in India. This situation results in loss of country’s productivity in terms of loss of over 70 million working days and economic burden of more than $500 million. Article 47 of the Constitution of India requires governments to act and provide clean drinking water and improved public health. The government, both at central and state levels, has been committing significant investment in five year plan and budgets. The water supply situations, in rural India, has always been a challenge due to various reasons. In rural India, significant improvements took place after the advent of Mark II hand pump for public drinking water provisions and the use of private hand pumps at household and community levels. The current trend is go move forward towards decentralised community or household water supply using motored pumps for groundwater pumping and supply through overhead tanks. The water quality remains a challenge- Water Safety Plans (WSP) can provide framework for ensuring risk free drinking water supply in rural India.