Second Phase of LOTUS-HR Project Launch

The Indo-Dutch Collaboration

With the project initiation in 2017, the Local Treatment of Urban Sewage streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUS-HR) project was launched in 2019, in the presence of the then Union Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, and His Majesty, King William Alexander, and Her Majesty, Queen Maxima of Netherlands. The project was launched at Barapullah drain, New Delhi, and aimed to depict a novel approach to reusing water for various purposes.

The Wastewater Management System

This project was a joint effort between the Department of Biotechnology, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India, and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research of the Government of Netherlands.

Key features of the project and the collaboration:

• The project focused on treating 10 lakh litres of wastewater from the Barapullah drain. The treated water would be then used for various purposes.
• This is the second phase of the LOTUS-HR project.
• Their Majesties were informed about the ongoing other local collaborations in water treatment technology and were also shown several demonstrations.
• This pilot project has incorporated a multitude of technologies that would be further replicated in other regions of India, where similar drains are present.
• This Indo-Dutch collaboration’s objective is to promote a business model of sustainable development of converting sewage water into clean, reusable water.
• The intermingling of technologies depended on various factors such as quality (a load of pollutants), quantity (rate of flow), accessibility of the site, land availability, and topography of the area.
• The project also marks a sign of demonstrating ongoing collaborations between India and the Netherlands.

What is the necessity of wastewater treatment?

The increasing population and competition for resources across the globe have burdened the natural resources to their threshold point. With such a massive amount of wastewater being generated daily and the alarmingly growing scarcity of freshwater resources, wastewater treatment is perhaps one of the most feasible and necessary conservation methods to save water.

The process involves treating the sewage water at two, and sometimes three levels. The stages are primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment. It is absolutely vital for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Unfortunately, in many developing countries, and 80% on the overall global scale, the wastewater is not treated and directly discharged into the freshwater sources like rivers, ponds, and streams. This leads to the death and disease of aquatic lives as well as those who come in contact with these toxic, polluted water bodies. 

The sole objective of the wastewater treatment system is to purify the wastewater until it is fit for consumption for all species, be it humans, fish, or any species. The treated water would then be released back into the environment where it is safely reused by all the organisms.

Conclusion:

In this article, we saw an overview of the second phase of the LOTUS-HR project, which was a collaboration between India and the Netherlands and was launched in 2019. The project focused on treating 10 lakh litres of wastewater from the Barapullah drain. The treated water would be then used for various purposes. This pilot project has incorporated a multitude of technologies that would be further replicated in other regions of India, where similar drains are present. 

This Indo-Dutch collaboration’s objective is to promote a business model of sustainable development of converting sewage water into clean, reusable water. The project launched at Barapullah drain, New Delhi aimed to depict a novel approach to reusing water for various purposes.

The sole objective of the wastewater treatment system is to purify the wastewater until it is fit for consumption for all, be it humans, fish, or any species. The treated water would then be released back into the environment where it is safely reused by all the organisms.