NEW DELHI: The city has taken its first step towards decentralized waste water treatment in the form of a pilot project at Keshopur where sewage will be treated to drinking water quality and supplied to nearby areas.

Sujala Dhara, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal ’s pet project, was launched on Thursday by Delhi Jal Board in collaboration with NGO SANA. The technology is in use in the US and will be replicated to treat sewage through five levels. However, with even cities like Singapore facing resistance from residents over consumption of treated sewage, the government is likely to be putting in major efforts to get people to accept this water.

To start off, water from this plant will be bottled and supplied to Delhi Secretariat and offices of Delhi Jal Board. DJB CEO S S Yadav said that once people see the CM and senior government officials drinking the water, they will eventually accept it. “We will set up six more plants by the end of the year. Tenders should be issued this week. They may not work on the same technology but we have specified output parameters and hope to get bathing quality water from these,” he said.

Bio-filteration nano membrane filteration technology has been used in the plant which was set up at a cost of Rs 55 lakh. DJB, however, did not bear the cost. “The plant will run on solar power and has a capacity of 25 million litre per year. Raw sewage will be screened and then pumped through the biofilter. This comprises five layers of organic and inorganic material including earthworms, cotton extracts, bacteria, organic sand, pebbles, stones, etc. The treated sewage will then be pumped into the membrane system which has a size of 0.001 micron where water will be chlorinated and made available for drinking. The plant will produce 66,000 litres of drinking water daily,” explained an official.

Delhi has once already contemplated use of treated waste water for drinking but pre-empting resistance, was to release the treated water in the Yamuna, upstream of the Wazirabad barrage, where it would not only mix with more water but also get treated additionally at the water treatment plant. That project stalled due to objections from Haryana. “Delhi is not likely to get more water from alternate sources. Centralized treatment is a good alternative but major planning is needed to get people to accept it,” said sources.