Water conservation workshop held in Noida

A workshop on water sustainability and conservation was held at Amity University in Noida

Ahead of World Water Day, scientists, bureaucrats and researchers attended a workshop on ‘Embrace the water: Sustainable solution for the future’ at Amity University in Noida on Tuesday.

The workshop focussed on finding ways to achieve water sustainability. (Picture for representative purpose only)

The workshop focussed on finding ways to achieve water sustainability as scientists dwelled on the imminent threat of water scarcity in India and the world.

The workshop was attended by Dr ES Eswaran, emeritus scientist, Unesco-DBT regional centre for Biotechnology; Dr Dinesh Chand, additional advisor to Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation; Dr Anuj Kanwal, director of Central Water Commission and Dr Shakeel Khan, senior scientist of Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture.

Addressing the workshop, Dr Eswaran said water conservation has become a serious issue for the 21st century. “It is now the root of problems between many neighbouring countries and in India even among neighbouring states. Questions are being raised not just on water scarcity, but its quality as well as people don’t pay attention to cleaning water tanks, which causes serious health issues,” he said.

“We have a concept called NanoPANI-Amrit in which nano particles are used to eliminate viruses from water,” he added.

Dr Chand also emphasised on the challenges in providing drinking water in India, saying that expanding population is the biggest threat to water sustainability.

“Although we have been successful in providing access to basic water supply facilities to almost everyone, the challenge now is how to provide higher levels of service with sustainable sources and systems that provide good quality water to a growing population,” he said.

Briefing students and scientists about the Central government schemes for water sustainability, Dr Chand said, “The government has launched National Rural Drinking Water programme with an aim to provide safe and adequate water for rural areas across India. By 2022, we aim to provide access to 70 litres per day water to every rural person in the country, within his/her household,” said Dr Chand.