Hyderabad uses novel technology to purify water

Hyderabad: In a bid to become one of India’s greenest cities, Hyderabad has developed the first Phytoremediation site. It has a first-of-its kind advanced phytoremediation technique for recycling polluted water or sewage involving no power consumption or construction costs.
The Platinum rated green building, the CII-Godrej Green Business Centre Building, located in Hitec City uses specific species of plants that absorb oxygen from the atmosphere and distribute it to the roots and ultimately decrease the Chemical Oxygen Demand and Biological Oxygen Demand  in water.
“After six months of continuous tests  and analysis, the yield has decreased the COD and BOD levels from 300 parts per million to just 10 part per million. Though unfit for potable use, the recycled water has many other functional abilities,” said S. Raghupathy, executive director, CII - Godrej Green Business Centre, Confederation of Indian Industry. He said many municipalities across the country are in talks on setting up the same in their cities and in Hyderabad, the HMDA and GHMC will also be initiating phytoremediation at a few drains to purify the water going to the lakes. One such attempt will soon be made at Kukatpally drain to treat water entering the Hussainsagar.
One unique feature of phytoremediation is its near zero operating costs, since it is a natural process involving plants.
“The main task involved in the process is the selection of plants, space, extent of the surface area for the roots to spread and proper distribution of water channels. Over 50 to 60 plants have the quality of absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere. We use Heliconia species, Thalia geniculata, Cyperus papyrus, Canna indica and Thalia dealbata in the current set up in Hyderabad. These plants bring down the COD and BOD levels remarkably, explained explained S. Raghupathy.