Dignitaries and speakers at the recently-held session on World Water Day at IIT (ISM) Source: IIT (ISM)
The Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad observed the World Water Day on March 22, with the core focus of this year’s theme “Groundwater : Making the invisible visible” and to inspire mitigative policies and actions towards achieving the mandate of Sustainable Development Goal 6 which pronounces “Water and Sanitation for all by 2030”.
An interactive session was organised in collaboration with Institution of Engineers (India) (IEI), Dhanbad local chapter in the Management Studies auditorium of the institution.
Deputy manager - environment, Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Amartanshu Srivastava and manager environment, Tata Steel, Pradeep Gaur delivered an interactive talk with the audience on the subject of mine water utilisation.
A large number of BTech, MTech, PhD scholars of the institute along with other faculty members and some executives from BCCL, CIMFR and Tata Steel attended the session.
Srivastava said that BCCL has about 70 mine water treatment units and utilising the mine water for drinking, domestic, agriculture and industrial use. A huge amount of water is used for water spraying to reduce air pollution in mines. He further said that BCCL has offered the Jharkhand Government free mine water and is planning to build a network of pipelines for augmenting the water usage. The State will further distribute the water after a suitable treatment process.
In his address, Gaur also explained about the utilisation of mine water for drinking, domestic, agriculture and industrial use. He said that most of the water is used for stowing of mines to prevent land subsidence which further protects the underground aquifer and the populated surface features. He said that the Jamadoda water treatment plant is a pioneer in establishing a modern mine water treatment plant in the Jharia Coalfields.
Gurdeep Singh from IEI explained about the worldwide issues of potable water and its importance in the industrialised region. He discussed his pioneering research in mine water treatment and study in more than 200 mines in India and abroad. He also explained about the water treatment technology by Indian Railways, which is now supplied as the branded bottled water - Rail Neer.
Biswajit Paul a faculty of IIT (ISM) and joint secretary of Institution of Engineers (India) said that Dhanbad has more than 120 mines, which pump water 365 days for mining purposes.
This important groundwater resource can be distributed by constructing water grids across the district and even can supply enough water to the neighbouring districts like Purulia in Bengal which is water starved, Bokaro and Giridih in Jharkhand by proper pipe networking and water management. The mine water can improve the agriculture of the region and the whole District. He shared some remarkable research and development achievement in terms of agriculture by utilising mine water, in Kutch Gujarat where water is very scarce. He also discussed the new guidelines issued by the ministry of jal shakti in September 2020 in which a no-objection certificate is required for industries, mining, infrastructure and well as for educational institutes - with and without boarding facilities, regarding usage of groundwater.