CWC and IIT Roorkee Forge Pioneering Partnership for Water Resources and Urban Flood Management

Two MoUs Signed to Enhance Water Resources Management and Urban Flood Resilience

Joint Efforts to Address Irrigation Efficiency, Climate Change, and Advanced Flood Risk Management

Combining Expertise to Develop Data-Driven Solutions for Water and Flood Challenges

Focus on Innovative Research and Technological Solutions for Societal Benefit

Today, two significant Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee). These MoUs aim to address critical challenges in Water Resources Management and Urban Flooding, leveraging the combined expertise of both institutions.

The agreements were signed by Shri Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman, CWC, and Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, in the presence of key officials and dignitaries from both organizations. The collaboration underscores a mutual commitment to develop innovative solutions for efficient water management and urban flood resilience.

The collaboration between the Central Water Commission (CWC) and IIT Roorkee in Water Resources Management will address critical areas such as irrigation efficiency assessment with actionable suggestions for improvement, comprehensive water accounting studies, and detailed cropped area mapping under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY).

Additionally, the partnership will develop a certificate program for Water Auditors and assess the impact of climate change on the water resources sector. These initiatives align with government efforts to enhance water management practices and bolster agricultural productivity. Leveraging IIT Roorkee's 176-year legacy of excellence and innovation in technological education and research, this collaboration aims to deliver robust, data-driven solutions that will benefit society by ensuring sustainable water resource management and resilience against environmental challenges.

The collaboration between the Central Water Commission (CWC) and IIT Roorkee in Urban Flooding encompasses pivotal areas such as urban flood forecasting, numerical urban flood inundation and hazard mapping, and urban flood risk management. This partnership also focuses on leveraging data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for precise flood susceptibility mapping in urban areas, as well as developing robust urban flood resilience mechanisms. These efforts align with government initiatives aimed at enhancing urban infrastructure and disaster preparedness.

IIT Roorkee, with its excellence in technological education and research, brings unparalleled expertise to this collaboration, promising innovative, data-driven solutions that will significantly benefit society by improving urban flood management practices and safeguarding communities against the increasing threat of urban flooding.

Reflecting on the significance of the MoUs, Prof. Ashish Pandey, Bharat Singh Chair Professor for Water Resources (MoJS, DoWR, GR&RD, GOI), Department of Water Resources Development and Management said, "expertise of water resources management of IIT Roorkee in water sector may be helpful in Irrigation efficiency assessment, Water accounting studies, training for Water Auditors and Impact of climate change on the Water Resources Sector. It will also promote collaboration in Urban Flood Forecasting studies employing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Flood susceptibility mapping in Urban areas. Collaborating with Central Water Commission and leveraging the expertise of IIT Roorkee, we can foster a culture of innovation that drives efficient water resources management".

Shri Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman, Central Water Commission, remarked, "These MoUs with IIT Roorkee mark a significant advancement in our efforts to manage water resources and urban flooding effectively. By combining CWC's extensive experience in water resources management with IIT Roorkee's cutting-edge research capabilities, we aim to develop solutions that will benefit society and improve resilience against natural disasters."

Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee, added, "We are excited to collaborate with the Central Water Commission on these crucial issues. Our interdisciplinary research approach, coupled with the practical insights provided by CWC, will enable us to create robust, data-driven strategies for water management and urban flood mitigation. This collaboration highlights our commitment to leveraging technology for societal benefit and advancing the nation's preparedness against environmental challenges."

IIT Roorkee, one of the foremost institutes of national importance in India's higher technological education and engineering, is dedicated to fostering the growth of intellectually capable, innovative, and entrepreneurial professionals. Through this collaboration, IIT Roorkee aims to contribute significantly to the development of science and technology, benefiting the nation's welfare and humankind.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) and IIT Roorkee have signed agreements to work together for five years, potentially longer, on improving water management and urban flood control in India. They will focus on key areas like making irrigation more efficient, studying water usage, mapping crop areas, and understanding the effects of climate change. They will also work on predicting urban floods, mapping flood risks, and using advanced technology to make cities more resilient to flooding. This partnership aims to support government initiatives and use IIT Roorkee's expertise to create solutions that benefit society by better managing water resources and protecting against floods.

Water Utility Startup Boson Whitewater Launches Operations in Hyderabad

Boson Whitewater will partner with apartment communities and industries to convert treated wastewater into high quality potable water

Boson Whitewater, a  water utility company that converts treated wastewater (STP Water) into high quality potable water, has launched operations in Hyderabad city. Boson Whitewater offers an IoT and AI enabled 11 step filtration system designed in sequence to reduce the various physical, chemical and biological contaminants present in treated wastewater.

Boson Whitewater is a water utility company founded with an aim to change the way industries, IT Parks, malls, and apartment communities recycle their wastewater. Founded by Vikas Brahmavar and Gowthaman Desingh, Boson Whitewater converts water from sewage treatment plants(STP) into potable high quality water that can be used for household purposes, centralised air conditioning in commercial buildings, and even for drinking. Currently, Boson Whitewater recovers close to 35 crore litres of high potable water from treated wastewater by working with apartment communities, malls, and industries in Bengaluru. The startup is in talks with residential communities in Hyderabad to convert unused treated wastewater into potable water.

Commenting on launching operations in Hyderabad, Vikas Brahmavar, CEO and Co-Founder, Boson Whitewater, said, “We are excited to launch our operations in Hyderabad with the support of our partner Mr.Srikanth and team from India Water Systems. At Boson Whitewater, our aim is to reduce urban water stress by introducing tech-enabled solutions that can be easily adopted. Our product has made a significant impact on residential communities and industries in Bengaluru by helping them use water judiciously and find a way to repurpose treated wastewater. We hope to create a similar impact in Hyderabad”

Creating a win-win for apartments and industries

As per an internal study by Boson Whitewater in Bengaluru, residential apartment complexes generate anywhere between 30,000 - 3 Lakh litres of wastewater everyday. Out of this, only 20% of STP water is used for flushing and for gardening purposes. The rest 80% flows into drains and eventually into our lakes and waterbodies, thereby causing pollution. This is a common problem in cities across India, including Hyderabad. Most apartments today do not have the avenues to discharge their excess treated water. Even though they convert their wastewater into STP, they are able to use only 20% of it. By installing Boson Whitewater system, the unused 80% can be converted into high quality potable water which can be sent to nearby industries.

Currently, most industries buy water from water tankers for their water requirements and process their wastewater in house. However, in spite of recycling it in house, they are unable to obtain high quality water due to the operational efficiency of wastewater plants. On the other hand, we have apartments that are draining out at least 80% of unused wastewater because they have no avenues to use them or discharge it for other purposes. With Boson Whitewater System, the excess STP treated water from apartments and commercial complexes is processed to a very high quality suited for industrial processing and mapped to industries within a 2-3 km radius. This makes the economics viable for both sides and results in water savings and efficient usage of wastewater.

Boson Whitewater’s IoT and AI enabled filtration system

Boson Whitewater (BWW) System is a 11 stage filtration system designed to remove all contaminants from treated wastewater. In the first 4 stages, treated wastewater will be taken through various filtration systems to reduce the turbidity, odour and iron present in the water using BWW’s unique filters. In the next 2 stages, BWW uses different types of dosing systems to reduce the organic contaminants present in the water, followed by different levels of micron filtration systems. Post the 3 stages of micron filtration, water is free from the physical contamination which will be taken through the Boson high recovery, low fouling membrane system which is designed to remove the various viruses and dissolved salts present in the water. Post the filtration, any residual bacteria and virus present in the water will be removed using Ultra Violet (UV) disinfectant system.

At the end of all the stages, the water does not have any contaminants. E Coli, Coliforms, heavy metals, high hardness, pesticides, herbicides are all removed and the water is crystal clear and potable. NABL certified lab reports indicate the water is drinkable.

Boson IoT platform collects various parameters at every stage of filtration and uses AI algorithms to detect the various anomalies like filtration efficiencies, variation in life of filters and pump failures.

Boson Whitewater was recently selected for ‘India Water Pitch-Pilot-Scale Start-Up Challenge’ by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Boson Whitewater is one among the 76 startups selected for the challenge from across India to work in the field of water supply, used water management, water body rejuvenation and ground water management.

For more details, visit

https://bosonwhitewater.com/

Ministry Selects 76 Startups for Water Management; Startups To Get Support of Up to ₹ 20 Lakh Each

76 startups have been onboarded under the ‘India Water Pitch-Pilot-Scale Start-Up Challenge’ by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) at an event in New Delhi on Friday.

Launched in March this year, the Start-up Water Challenge is under Atal mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). 

The start-ups have been shortlisted by the Ministry through a challenge process launched in March, 2022 under AMRUT 2.0 Mission. In this regard, a ‘Startup Gateway’ has also been launched wherein the start-ups can apply and be shortlisted by MoHUA for financial support.

The shortlisted startups will be provided financial support of up to ₹ 20 lakh each to work in the fields of water supply, used water management, water body rejuvenation and ground water management etc., said Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

Besides the startups, a portal Urban Waterbody Information System (UWaIS) was also launched with help from National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad. The portal will provide satellite images of water bodies to various cities to plan their rejuvenation. 219 cities have been handed over UWaIS dossiers of water bodies during the event.

In addition to this, the Ministry also launched a Toolkit for ‘Pey Jal Survekshan’ in 485 cities. Pey Jal Survekshan, under the Jal Jeevan Mission, will assess cities with respect to the quality of water and the quality of water delivery to the citizens, along with sewerage, septage management, grievance redressal, water body conservation, ground water management etc.

IIT Kanpur Incubated Startup Gets Rs 3.29 Crores From Ministry to Develop Smart Water Management Technologies

Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, announced financial support of Rs. 3.29 crores to Kritsnam Technologies, a Start-up Company, incubated at IIT Kanpur to develop smart water management technologies. The minister said the the technology, initially focused on commercial users, can be a game changer in effectively monitoring & controlling the ground water exploitation across country in future.

Kritsnam Technologies (Kritsnam) is a funded and incubated startup from IIT Kanpur working on data-driven water management solutions. The Ranchi, Jharkhand-based startup envision to use freshwater sustainably for industrial, agriculture and drinking purposes.

An MoU was signed in the presence of Dr Jitendra Singh between the Technology Development Board (TDB) under Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Kritsnam Technologies Pvt Ltd, for production & commercialization of Dhaara Smart Flow Meter.

The Minister was informed that the start-up is developing ‘Dhaara Smart Flowmeter’ - an integrated system for online monitoring using two beam ultrasonic flowmeters that is designed to track the water distribution in real-time for applications such as drinking water supply, ground water extraction, industrial water usage and precision irrigation. 

Image - Kritsnam.com

The Dhaara is a new-age water meter that combines the power of IoT with the latest sensor technologies. The integrated telemetry and battery powered capabilities make it easy to manage your water consumption from anywhere and anytime (even when the power is down).

The device collects data through sensors, stores it in the device, and transmits to the online cloud servers and thereafter the data transmitted to servers is analysed and displayed in the dashboard. This unique solution is a combination of hardware & software for flow measurement and water management respectively.

Click to Enlarge [Image © - https://kritsnam.com/ ]

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Dhaara Smart Flow Meter will greatly benefit Prime Minister Modi’s Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal), a Rs.6,000 crore Central Sector Scheme, for sustainable management of ground water resources with community participation. The scheme is being implemented in 80 water stressed districts and 8,565 Gram Panchayats of seven States viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh from 01.04.2020 for a period of five years.

Dr. Jitendra Singh further said, Dhaara Smart Flow Meter can also help bulk water consumers to budget their water usage and empower them to understand their patterns, points of inefficiencies and help them to build strong strategies for reducing water wastage.

The Dhaara Smart Flow Meter is battery operated and does not require external power and the hardware architecture is based on the Internet of Things (IoT) communication circuits which is patented in India. In addition, it complies with ISO and Central Ground Water Authority standards. The water usage data is automatically recorded in an online logbook through telemetry via 4G/2G. 

The built-in telemetry and battery-operated capabilities make it easy for users to monitor their water consumption virtually anywhere (even when the power is out). 

The product being developed initially aims at commercial users like hotels, hospitals, malls, IT parks, schools, colleges and industrial users (food products, packaged drinking water, pharmaceuticals, paper & pulp etc.).

Kritsnam raised Pre Series-A funding of Rs 6 crore (~ $8,00,000) in February this year, which was led by an IIT Kanpur’s alumni of 1987 batch, along with participation from Ashish Gupta (Founder of Helion Ventures), Kunal Shah (Founder of Cred), Basab Pradhan (former Infosys Executive) and Sanjiv Verma (former Managing Director of Baxter India), among others. 

The startup was also among the three winners of Water Challenge organized by Smart City Living Lab at IIIT Hyderabad, in collaboration with the Government of Telangana and NIUM.

It may be recalled that the Central Groundwater Authority issued guidelines under which every commercial ground water user must install a smart water meter and pay yearly bills. All the project proponents/users drawing ground water and seeking/having NOC shall have to mandatorily install tamper-proof digital water flow meters with telemetry on all the ground water abstraction structures within their premises.

Ground Water levels in various parts of the country are declining because of continuous withdrawal due to reasons such as increased demand of fresh water for various uses, vagaries of rainfall, increase in population, industrialization and urbanization etc. As per the assessment of Dynamic Ground Water Resources (2017) carried out by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in collaboration with States/UTs, out of the total 6,881 assessment units (Block/ Taluks/ Mandals/ watersheds/ Firkas) in the country, 1,186 units in 17 States/UTs have been categorized as ‘over-exploited’ where ‘Annual Ground Water Extraction’ is more than ‘Annual Extractable Ground Water Resource’.

Shri Rajesh Kumar Pathak, IP&TAFS, Secretary, TDB said, “Water is essential to all humankind & the ground water is dominant source of drinking water but the pace at which the ground water is depleting is alarming. Govt of India is taking urgent steps needed to replenish the ground water level through water harvesting technologies as well as planned & controlled ground water extraction. ‘Dhaara Smart Flow Meter’ from startup ‘Kritsnam’ would be a great addition to this endeavour. The smart meter has been designed in such a way that, it can perform ground water management with real time processing, even without electricity”.