PAVITR · Potential and Validation of Sustainable Natural & Advance Technologies for Water & Wastewater Treatment, Monitoring and Safe Water Reuse in India

The increased demand for drinking water from habited zones combined with continued pollution of freshwater sources due to inadequate collection and treatment of wastewater, is a statement of challenge and also a window of opportunity common to India and Europe. Unlike in Europe, the water and sanitation scenario in developing countries like in India is a matter of serious concern and more challenging. The main aim of this project is to validate, deploy or develop cost-effective & sustainable solutions to tackle water challenges and ensure the provision of safe water reuse, rejuvenate water quality of rivers, and restore ecosystems in India. This will be achieved by deploying & developing water / wastewater technologies, and use of sensors for emerging and traditional contaminants. Further, it also aims to develop new management & planning strategies and enable better monitoring of pollution levels in real-time modes. This will not only contribute to the development of sustainable technologies to cope with water shortages in rural and urbanised areas in India, but also in Europe, where climate change is expected to induce a changing and uncertain precipitation pattern and an enhancement in temperature. It will assess and enhance the potential of natural and technical water treatment systems to suit the local hydro-geological conditions. Moreover, the projects will assess and validate different wastewater and water management plans. Besides the technical aspects, research will also cover financial, environmental and institutional sustainability of those systems in order to develop and bring to the market a cost-efficient multi-barrier water management approach by building capacity.