INDIA TRIBUNE, Chicago  September 12, 2009

Chicago NRI scientist cleans up polluted lake in Indian town   By J.V. Lakshmana Rao,,Chicago:

Water is one of the five natural elements on which all living beings sustain their lives.  Pollution is a worldwide phenomenon and safe drinking water is a rare commodity and even availability of water in any form is difficult in some parts of the world.

Despite several rivers criss-crossing India, and ample rainfall with occasional drought conditions most of rural parts of the country suffer  for want of clean drinking water.

While some cities do have water treatment plants and piped water supply, there are cases where sewage water getting mixed into treated drinking water, thus spreading several diseases. Villages are generally served by small water tanks either manmade or natural, and/or open wells and bore-wells.

Identifying the severity of problem, some Non-Resident Indians (NRI) with the help of local non-governmental organizations have taken up the cleanup of polluted tanks and construction of water treatment plants. One such NRI is Dr. Prakasam Tata, president of India Development Coalition of America (IDCA) and executive director of the Center for Transformation of Waste Technology, Wheaton, IL. He hails from a district headquarters town of Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh.  For several years, Vizianagaram had suffered the wrath of the existence of a highly polluted big water tank called Pedda Cheruvu. Thanks to Dr. Prakasam, the town now enjoys pollution-free Pedda Cheruvu.  He had taken up the much delayed cleanup process of the tank and the construction of a treatment plant of sewerage water that was let into the tank.

Speaking at a forum on water and sanitation organized by IDCA at the Oak Brook Library on August 29, Dr. Prakasm made a power-point presentation about the two cleanup  projects -- one in  Vizianagaram,  and another at Duppada, a village nearby.

The first project was on the abatement of pollution of a manmade Pedda Cheruvu of 170 acres, which has a catchment area of 184 square miles.  About one million gallons of sullage and sewage enters the lake daily.  It has been a perennial nuisance for the past several decades emanating strong stench and sending swarms of mosquitoes in the evenings, although it had its days of glory as a multipurpose and recreational reservoir when it was first constructed about 120 years ago based on the design of a French architect who was hired by the Maharaja of Vizianagaram.

Dr. Prakasm, who  as an environmental scientist and engineer with 55 years of experience in the field of water supply and wastewater treatment, was able to convince the district collector of Vizianagaram in 2002 after more than a decade of persistent efforts to remediate the grotesque condition of this heavily polluted lake.  He advised the district collector that the mechanical wastewater treatment system proposed by the Visakha Urban Development Authority at an estimated cost of about $7 million that guzzles a lot of energy and demands skillful operations and maintenance would be a white elephant to reckon with.  He suggested a relatively simple system comprising a deep wastewater stabilization pond system that neither requires power nor skilled operations to maintain the system, and he volunteered to provide the designs.  After his advice was accepted by the district administration, the treatment system was constructed at one-tenth of the cost that  was originally estimated on the lakebed itself, and it went into operation within nine months after its construction began.  All the wastewater that was indiscriminately discharged into the lake was intercepted for treatment by the wastewater treatment system.  The treatment plant area was beautified with a park like environment and benches were placed on the banks of the lake, where people sit and relax in the evenings without the nuisance of odors or mosquitoes. For  more than four years the plant has been operating without any problem.  However, since last year some of the wastewater is being discharged once again directly into the lake rather than into the treatment plant.  The local municipality felt that they had to do this to alleviate monsoon flooding upstream of the treatment plant.  Dr. Prakasam said that during his recent visit he met with the district collector and explained to him how the problem could be solved The district collector met  with the municipal commissioner and the Visakha Urban Development Authority  in the presence of Dr. Prakasm. Currently they are working on a solution to mitigate the direct discharge of sewage into the lake that is now occurring. Dr. Prakasam volunteered to take up the maintenance and operation of the water treatment plant  under the aegis of Bharathi Theertha, a nonprofit organization established in Vizianagaram in 1924 and also registered in Illinois as a 501 C 3 nonprofit corporation.

Dr. Prakasam said that the second project he had undertaken was to provide water supply and sanitation facilities at Duppada village for 400 dalits, who do not have access to the facilities.  The project is financially supported by a matching grant of $43,000 obtained from Rotary International by the Rotary Club of Naperville of which he is a member. The project involves the construction of two bathrooms and a lavatory complex  for men and women on a site separated by a small park.  The project would provide livelihoods to at least four people from the income generated through the project.  A portion of the water produced by reverse osmosis would be supplied to the villagers at a nominal cost, and the rest would be sold to other customers. A part of the income generated would be used for maintaining the reverse osmosis plant, bathrooms and lavatory.

Dr. John Sheaffer, managing director of Center for the Transformation of Waste Technology, spoke on how income could be generated by treating wastewater discharge by cities in India along with storm water that caused havoc during monsoon season.  He suggested that the storm water collected in cities like Mumbai during monsoon season and the wastewater generated daily in the metropolitan area could be collected and stored in large reservoirs. The stored water could be used for the irrigation of arid lands elsewhere in the state of Maharashtra or even could be transported through pipelines to irrigate arid and desert areas of Rajasthan to make the desert bloom.

Earlier welcoming the gathering, Anupam Mehta, chairman of the Water Initiative of IDCA, opened the forum with an invocation.  He cited Dominic Barton, worldwide managing director of McKinsey and Company, who articulated the importance of water, its conservation and management for sustaining development in all parts of the world in the future; particularly the forecast for sustaining growth of emerging nations like India, it was important for them to properly manage their water resources.

As he is extremely passionate about correcting the degenerating situation in the quality and quantity of water in India’s water resrouces, Anupam Mehta announced that he would be returning to India soon to spend the rest of his life to lead a peaceful agitation in Gandhian style to encourage citizens of India for conserving water and improving quality and quantity of water resources. 

In the absence of Dr. Ranga Reddy, chairman of Department of Anesthesiology at the Memorial Medical Center, Springfield, his paper on the opportunity of affording the construction of water treatment systems by the Andhra Pradesh Medical Graduates in USA (APMGUSA) Foundation, which has a memorandum of understanding with Naandi Foundation, Hyderabad, was presented by Dr. Prakasam. According to the plan if a donor or donors contribute Rs. 500,000 to install a water treatment system, Naandi Foundation matches the donation with a grant of Rs. 400,000.  Naandi Foundation will build the system and maintain it provided the villager community provides the land and a source of water.

T. Venkataramayya, a Gandhian ideologue and social activist from India, spoke about the need for the people in India to follow the principles of Sanatana Dharma and resort to peaceful agitation for raising the living standards of the poor as India had degenerated to a state of lacking character, integrity and moral commitment, and people were divided on the bases of greed, religion, caste and selfishness.