Thiruvananthapuram: The Muttathara sewage farm produces around 40 million litres of greywater daily and all this recycled water flows into waterbodies like Parvathi Puthanar but is being wasted without being used for non-drinking purposes. Greywater constitutes all wastewater generated in households or office buildings but without fecal contamination.
The problem is that people in Kerala are very hesitant about using greywater as it has a stigma attached to it, according to a senior official attached to the Sewarage division.
For context, to be noted is that Peppara dam supplies only around 70 million litres per day (MLD) of water to city residents. Also, according to a senior official, “Newer water bodies are being exploited in the city now and we will soon start drawing 22.9 MLD of water from Vellayani.”
In water-crisis hit Bangalore, greywater plants are romanticised ideas. But despite it being available here, experts warn that Thiruvananthapuram will also end up with water-related chaos if it does not use greywater in stadia, public gardens and construction.
“We cannot rule out the possibility of Peppara dam hitting dead stock sometime in the future. We were hit badly by the drought 2012 and what exacerbates the situation is that the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) is giving more connections in the city and suburbs. So, we will be in real trouble if we do not stop over exploiting our drinking water sources.
All developed countries utilise greywater and we are just wasting it,” said a KWA engineer working with Pattoor division. KSUDP and KWA had in the past planned to supply the water to stakeholders like builders but nothing materialised.
“We cannot lay a pipeline for greywater in our city. Someone can accidentally end up linking greywater pipes to drinking water pipe lines. So we need pumping centres and trucks to provide it to needy people at nominal rates,” said the senior official attached to the Sewarage division.
