Union Minister inaugurates water centre at NIRDPR

​Hyderabad: Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram on Sunday inaugurated Water and Wastewater Resource Centre (WWRC) established by S M Sehgal Foundation on the premises of Rural Technology Park at National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) here.

Speaking on the occasion, Jual Oram appreciated the joint efforts of Sehgal Foundation and NIRDPR. He said, “These water technologies have big relevance in rural areas across India and needs to be promoted.” Sehgal Foundation and NIRDPR have collaborated to develop and disseminate technologies on water and wastewater management suitable for rural areas, conduct trainings on water and wastewater management and continue research on innovative solutions on technologies besides providing technical guidance and support to interested individuals and organisations for replication of displayed models. Sehgal Foundation has presence in over 760 villages in 18 districts across eight States in India. In Southern India, the organisation is working in districts of Kolar in Karnataka, Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, and Medchal in Telangana on water and agriculture.

WWRC was an initiative of the Sehgal Foundation in partnership with NIRDPR. It hosts working models, demonstration models, panels, posters, murals and so on various technologies on water conservation and wastewater management suitable for rural areas. The centre will act as a nodal centre for providing information, technical support and training to village functionaries, government officials, non-government organisations (NGOs), and community-based organisations (CBOs) and serve as a referral point for village level institutions (VLIs) and students on water and wastewater management.

Ramesh Shaktivel, Head RTP at NIRDPR and Mohammad Khan, Senior Advisor, RTP said the models displayed at the centre, include soak pit and soak well for proper disposal of wastewater at household and community level, in addition to Jalkalp (biosand) water filter for elimination of bacteriological contaminants, suspended particles, iron etc. from drinking water supply. It showcases innovations such as high pressure recharge well for creating freshwater pocket in saline aquifers.

It also features rooftop rainwater harvesting system for drinking and other household purpose suitable for water scare regions, low cost check dam model and other watershed structures for harvesting and conserving surface runoff for augmenting local water resources and improving the availability of water for agriculture and domestic requirements.

According to Salahuddin Saiphy, senior manager, Projects (South), “the WWRC not only showcases working and demonstrative models on water and wastewater management, it also has a technical expert explaining the model displayed to diverse groups who visit the centre. The centre serves as a platform to create mass awareness on water and wastewater management issues in rural India, which is the need of the times.”