Madurai: Implementing effective rainwater harvesting methods, augmentation of water resources, desilting of waterbodies with public private partnerships, judicious use of groundwater and water safety through proper infrastructure are the ways a city like Madurai need to look for to overcome its water scarcity, said Madurai Corporation commissioner Aneesh Sekhar.
Inaugurating the CII Tamil Nadu Water Conclave 2018, solutions to manage water resources effectively, in the presence of Dr S Rajamohan, chairman, CII Madurai Zone, he said that though the city had planned to meet its water requirements through the Rs 1,025-crore project by bringing 125 MLD of water to the city, a lot of efforts had to be taken to protect and preserve the existing water resources.
The civic body was treating about 25 to 30 MLD of water which is used for irrigation now.
The industries should think of innovative ways to avoid excess use of groundwater, he said.
“We can learn from countries such as Singapore and Israel in this aspect,” he said adding that Madurai was one of the cities where water was priced very low at Rs 900 for domestic usage and Rs 1,500 for commercial use per annum.
Reusing waste water for gardening is the best practice which could reduce usage by 30%.
Traditional MSMEs, which were the biggest employers next to agriculture in the country, were operating with less than 50% of their capacity because they are facing environmental litigations as many of them are established near rivers, said chief operating officer of Tamil Nadu Water Investment Company I Sajid Hussain.
He said that 30% of them had been closed down owing to charges of polluting waterbodies.
He said that zero liquid discharge (ZLD) was the solution to this problem.
Companies in Tirupur had been able to bounce back and increase their exports by following these ZLD practices.