Sigma Six Q: Water Quality - The Third Quality

In the last two posts, we covered Innovation and Air Quality and the significant activities performed at Dayalbagh on these two Qualities.

In this post, we will cover the third Quality for a Sustainable Way of Life – Water Quality.

Quality of life is impacted by our ecosystem and water is one of its most important components. Water Quality directly affects the health and well-being of all living beings and thereby the quality of their lives and their existence.

The first basic need is to provide drinkable tap water to each resident. In the words of Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi, “You may not be knowing that here every week, the water is tested and examined, the underground well water, to see whether it is pure enough to keep the users free from diseases. All this may not be openly known to you all, but we are doing all these things every week and also as per requirement chlorine, potassium permanganate and alum are mixed in water. All these steps are being taken whereby the purity of water and its quality, which is used for drinking, is maintained.”¹

In Dayalbagh, home water supply for residents is from Wells. Chlorination is done as required with chlorine levels kept close to 1 ppm. The checks/ evaluations are done weekly and suitable actions taken. These stringent quality measures ensure that drinking water in Dayalbagh is of better quality than commercially available bottled water and that too directly off the tap, practically free of cost.

Let us look at some global water statistics.²

1. 2.53% of global water is fresh water (Glaciers, Ground ice, Freshwater lakes, Swamps, River flows, Biological water, atmospheric water)
2. 1.7% of global water is in permanent ice/ glaciers (and depleting).
3. Only 0.76% of global water is fresh water ground water (and depleting).
4. Only 0.007% of global water is in fresh water lakes (and depleting).
5. Only 0.0002% of global water is in river flows.

Rain/snow is the chief source of replenishment of freshwater, i.e. movement of water from oceans to freshwater sources, through the evaporation, condensation and precipitation cycle.

Dayalbagh's aim is to continuously replenish the fresh water sources and recycle.

To minimize runaway and wastage of water, the drainage of residential areas and office premises in Dayalbagh is equipped to harvest rainwater/ used water for recharging of the water table. Both percolation tanks/ ponds and pits are used for ground water recharge.

Treated sewage water from Agra city is put to reuse. A state of the art Sewage Treatment Plant recycles wastewater rich in soluble organic matter that is then used to irrigate farmland and for horticultural purposes.

Thus, Dayalbagh provides tap-drinkable water to its residents and conserves, replenishes and recycles water, working to ensure Water Quality is maintained in a sustainable way.


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The above post is by Ms. Juhi Singh with inputs from Prof. Satya Prakash.

References:

1. Quotes of Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi are taken from “The Dayalbagh Herald” dated Tuesday, June 21st, 2016.
2. Igor Shiklomanov's chapter "World fresh water resources" in Peter H. Gleick (editor), 1993, Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources (Oxford University Press, New York).