BENGALURU:Srinivasan Sekar, a resident of Sarjapura Road in the city, has found a way to convert the waste water generated at his residence into usable water.
Sekar is managing director of his firm - TerraCura Solutions - which specialises in creating sustainable solutions. He has installed a slew of filters in his residence, which purifies the waste water.
As a result, Sekar is able to use the water for different purposes, such as gardening and washing. With this, he ensures there is no wastage of water as the water discharged is re-used.
Plants As Filter
Sekar uses different types of filters — ranging from charcoal to passing the water through plants, which absorb the nitrates and phosphates.
“The water molecule is the most important. Even in waste water, there are different molecules other than water. So if one filters out the other molecules, all that is left is water. In fact, when I wanted to check where the waste water went eventually, I found that it would end up at a sewage treatment plant. Considering that water accumulates at such plants, with no outlet, I realised that there is no need to throw away the water and that it can be re-used,” Sekar said.
Sekar also practises rainwater harvesting. He said rain is a good source of water that can be stored for future use.
“In fact, due to the recent rains in the city, I got about 50,000 litres of water. This is a huge amount and can be used for five months at least. Apart from the rains, all I need is around six-seven tankers of water a year, at the rate of around Rs 300 per tanker. My expenditures have come down drastically. The best part is that the model is sustainable and can be incorporated in bigger establishments,” he said.
Sekar said a similar model has also been incorporated in Singapore, where around 30 per cent of water is processed from sewage.
The model has also been incorporated at TZ Homes, an apartment complex in Sarjapura. After having stayed in the apartment for a while, Sekar, who was a member of the apartment’s association, noticed that there were huge expenditures towards water. “We needed at least 10 water tankers a day and had to resort to water rationing. However, we still faced water scarcity,” he said.
“Measuring the water consumed by the residents was a challenge. There were continuous problems, while I wanted us to be self-sufficient. Hence, I decided to implement the model there too.”
TZ Homes has received an award from the state government in this regard, he added.