The Union water resources ministry has directed the health department of the Delhi government to set up an expert committee to conduct a detailed study on the health impact of the dyeing units operating in the Mustafabad locality of northeast Delhi and extent of ground water contamination in the area, if any, due to these industrial units.Expecting the Committee to submit its report within a month for proper action against those units, the ministry said any violation of the direction would attr...

Bengaluru has got its first sewage treatment plant (STP) which generates 1MW of power using a biogas engine. Chief minister Siddaramaiah inaugurated the STP of 60 million litres per day (MLD) capacity in the Koramangala-Challaghatta Valley, which will reduce sewage inflow into the heavily polluted Bellandur Lake by at least 120 MLD. The state-of-the-art plant harnesses all the sewage generated by areas between Kanakapura Road in the south and Sarjapur Road in the southeast and uses the activate...

Ahead of the monsoon, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) will be reaching out to 100,000 villages with its water conservation programme. The Nabard will be working with villagers on better use of water for agriculture and household purposes. Amid a drought-like situation in several areas, the Nabard targets to help farmers extend water availability and usage by at least two months. It also asked banks to provide advances to farmers if any demand comes for irrigat...

The Centre plans to tap rural employment guarantee funds to recharge remnants of ancient rivers — including the mythical Saraswati — in a bid to boost groundwater reserves. Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said that a committee of secretaries — from the Water, Environment and Rural Development Ministries — had been constituted to see how the Rs48,000 crore MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) funds could be harnessed. Reviving such...

The UAE Water Aid Foundation,  Suqia, under the umbrella of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has implemented two projects to provide drinking water to over 90,000 people in Somalia.  Suqia has implemented these projects in cooperation with the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charity and Humanitarian Establishment.  This is one of Suqia’s humanitarian projects to support international efforts to combat poverty and disease by finding sustainable and inn...

Seawater in Egypt could be turned into drinking water using biomass energy as a source of heat in a new collaborative project from academics at the University of Sheffield UK and Port Said University in Egypt.  The unique two year project will see academics from the world-leading Energy 2050 Institute partner with Egyptian experts to develop a system that could provide fresh and safe water to poor and rural communities.   Egypt's growing population and scarcity of water resources...

Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) has published its outlook for power and desalinated water supply to 2023. The report details the expected growth in demand for water in the country’s five water zones, and outlines current procurement and construction activity. Additionally, it notes a shift from use of multi-stage flash (MSF) technology towards reverse osmosis (RO). In the country's Main Interconnected System (MIS) water zone, demand is expected to grow at 5 per cent a ...

European and Middle Eastern nations are set to collaborate and join the global race to scale up renewable powered desalination. Sweden and Qatar have partnered to set up a wind and solar powered desalination project in the north of the country. It’s anticipated that the desalination process would take 200 megawatts from solar and a further 200 megawatts from wind power, producing water at a cost of US$1 per cubic metre. Qatari local source The Peninsula reported that Oscar Stenströ...