NEW DELHI: To improve groundwater levels in South Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will recharge 15 abandoned pits in the Bhatti Mines area using 10 million litres of treated water from the Okhla Treatment Plant.
According the DJB, the recharging in the mines will improve groundwater levels in the areas of Chattarpur, Sangam Vihar, Deoli and other constituencies. This water can be extracted in future following improvement in groundwater levels.
“These pits will benefit the Delhi side where water levels are already very down. This was Wapcos report… in Bhatti areas there used to be many abandoned pits. Out of the total number of abandoned pits, there are 15 pits where recharging is done,” said Ankit Srivastava, the technical advisor to DJB.
Wapcos is a consultancy organisation and a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Srivastava said that the project, to cost `44.57 crore, had been approved by DJB and was to be completed in 18 months.
“We will be taking the treated water from the Okhla STP to those 15 pits. Water released from the treatment plant is already achieving raw drinking water quality parameters, which are suitable for recharge purpose as defined by Central Pollution Control Board. It was also informed that due to 3 metres of sand cushion already available in the pits, they found that the percolation rate of the ground was very good and groundwater recharge would be good,” he added.
As per Wapcos report, the STP at Okhla is giving Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of less than 10 mg per litre, which was identified for recharge of abandoned Bhatti mine pits after treatment with constructed wetland. However, considering the site constraint for construction of wetland and quality of STP effluent, it was decided that 10 MLD tertiary treatment plant having BOD of less than 3 mg/l shall be used for recharge of Bhatti Mines.
Rejuvenation of four water bodies at Rasulpur, Bindapur, Dhichau Kalan and Tikri Kalan using phytorid treatment technology is also in the pipeline.