Uttaranchal government joins RBF initiative

Dehra Dun, Nov 22 (UNI) The Uttaranchal government has joined the IIT Roorkee-EU joint project on River Bed Filtration (RBF), a cost-effective technique for drawing water from polluted rivers.

An agreement to this effect was signed yesterday between Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan and concerned parties, Chief General Manager of Uttaranchal H P Uniyal Jal Sansthan said here.

The projects will run under the aegis of a centre set up at IIT Roorkee in collaboration with the University of Applied Science, Dresden, Germany and Stadwerke dusseldorf, a german water company.

The centre will identify new sites for the innovative filtration techique, provide assistance and training for design and operation for establishing new RBF sites and to involve all government and private stakeholders.

It will start functioning from December this year.

Mr C S P Ojha of the Civil Engineering department of the Institute will be the chief coordinator of the project in India.

Elaborating on the technique, Mr Uniyal said the RBF involves drawing water from the river bank instead from the river itself. The water pumped from the river bank gets filtered of solids and large pathogens and organic material through alluvial aquifer soil pores.

Such water is fit for drinking without any other treatment. The process is very cost effective.

He said the technique was being employed across Europe and America effectively.

In India densely populated cities where river pollution is common place, RBF can prove to be an effective and efficient way of providing clean drinking water to the people, Mr Uniyal added.

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