| Sanction Date: | 20.03.2025 | |||
| Project Category | MG | |||
| Year | 2024-2025 | |||
| Project Duration | 3 Years | |||
| BTA : | HW | |||
| Project Site/ State/ Districts/ Villages Covered: |
Kataula, (Sadar Tehsil) Mandi District in Himachal Pradesh. |
|||
| Organization/ Implementation Agency: | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kamand Campus, IIT Mandi, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh | |||
| Project Partners: | S.No. | Name | ||
| 1. | Jal Shakti Vibhag Mandi H.P. | |||
| 2. | Sarpanch, Kataula Panchayat | |||
| Lead Proponent: | Dr. Deepak Swamy |
|||
| Project Brief Description: | Agriculture requires more water due to increased crop production to meet the food demand of the growing population. Additional freshwater availability is not going to be easily given the increasing water scarcity and uncertainty due to climate change and competing demands from rapid industrialization and growing population. The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) will be more adversely affected considering the topography and fewer water resources. Increasing tourism and unsustainable urbanization in IHR are generating immense wastewater. The use of treated wastewater as an alternate irrigation source is practiced in many parts of the world (Chen et al., 2013; Singh, 2021). Treated wastewater is a perennial source of water supply that is immune to climate change, thereby becoming a viable, pragmatic, alternative and sustainable solution to the declining freshwater availability (Singh, 2021). The urban areas are equipped with centralized treatment plants with a variety of treatment methods based upon the local climatic conditions, produced wastewater and its volume. However, the rural areas are not well connected with the wastewater treatment plant. The alternative for the treatment of the wastewater for the rural areas are generally limited to constructed wetlands and waste stabilization ponds (WSP). WSPs can be aerobic, facultative, or anaerobic to treat the wastewater generated from rural areas. Centralized treatment system is used for the entire society by collecting wastewater from all households to a single wastewater treatment unit. This system needs long pipeline networking, failing which leakages can happen and odor smell will cause serious problems in the society and also having high maintenance and installation cost system in sewage treatment. The cost of collecting and treating 1 MLD wastewater for an average transport length of one kilometer is approximately Rs. 20-50 million depending upon the size and functionality of the treatment plant (Matto et al., 2014). In the Himalayan region, a centralized wastewater treatment plant is not possible because population density is low in rural areas. For single or multiple houses, a decentralized treatment system will be best suited in such habitats. Decentralized treatment systems are designed for the small-scale treatment of wastewater. Using this type of treatment system will enhance the use of treated sewage for irrigation purposes. This type of system can be installed in any part of Himalayan region based on requirement and can reduce high capital investment. The best part of this decentralized system is that sewage can be treated near the source of generation. These treatment systems aresite specific and have flexibility to adapt to techno-socio-economic feasibility for an integrated solution. There are many benefits for using decentralized wastewater treatment plant such as these systems are flexible in terms of design and site location, short sewer networking, cost effective treatment, due to small treatment quantity variety of simple treatment methods can be implement in research and development field, treated water can be used in commercial and agricultural nurseries, garden, parks etc. (Thakur et. al, 2024). | |||
| Beneficiaries/ Stakeholders: |
• Marginalized farmers/ Policymakers |
|||
| Activity Chart | ||||
| Total Grants (in Rs.) | Rs. 8,596,800/- (Rupees Eighty-Five Lakh Ninety-Six Thousand Eight Hundred Only) | |||
| Project Objectives | Quantifiable Deliverables | Monitoring Indicators |
|
• To implement Decentralized WW treatment and application of effluent to the agriculture • To study the impact of TWW application (with chemical and nano-fertilizers) on soil and shallow subsurface water quality; • To determine the uptake of emerging contaminants by crops at different growth stages and their translocation in the plant; • To monitor the impact of use of TWW application (with chemical and nano-fertilizers) on agricultural yield; • To identify the best management practices (BMPs) which would help farmers as well as policy makers to adopt TWW and NF in sustainable agricultural practices. |
• Functional decentralized wastewater systems • Soil and water quality assessment reports • Crop contaminant uptake and translocation analysis • BMP framework for TWW and nano-fertilizer use • Risk assessment framework and mitigation strategies • Policy recommendations and farmer-friendly BMP manuals • Training workshops, manuals, peer-reviewed publications. |
• No. of installed treatment units; Volume of treated water reused. • Concentration of contaminants in plant tissues at various growth stages. • Adoption rate of BMPs by farmers Policy recommendations generated • No. of farmers/communities engaged. • Changes in acceptance levels based on surveys. • Number of training sessions conducted. • No. of publications and outreach materials. • No. of research papers, technical reports, and policy documents published. |
| S.No. | Name (Sanctioned) | Salary (Sanctioned) |
| 1. | 02 Research Associate | @ Rs.58,000/- + 10% HRA |
| 2. | 02 Field Assistant | @ Rs.15,000/- |
| S.No. | Name of Equipment (Sanctioned) | Cost (in INR) |
| 1. | 01 Laptop with intel Core Ultra 9-185 H up to 5.1 GHz, Windows 11 pro, QHD IPS @200000/-, Moisture and Salinity Sensors (with range of soil moisture from 0 to 100% with accuracy) @240000/- | 4,40,000 |
