For providing safe drinking water to north Indian cities, the European Union in collaboration with several Indian institutes has decided to start an "EU-India River Bank Filtration network". | |
| Starting from Haridwar, the partnership aims to introduce a time-tested natural technique of water filtration along river Ganga, which is in vogue in Europe for the past century to provide chemical-free safe drinking water to the general masses. |
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| Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Centre for Flood Management Studies, Patna and Integrated Hydro Development Forum, Patna are the Indian partners who will be involved in studying the concept of river bank filtration techniques at some north Indian cities like Haridwar, Varanasi and Patna in the beginning. |
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| Harshpati Uniyal, chief general manager (CGM) of Uttaranchal Jal Sansthan said bank filtration technique used naturally filtered groundwater from aquifers that were hydraulically connected to rivers and lakes. |
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| In this technique, wells on the banks of rivers getting naturally filtered water were dug, and drinking water needs of the peoplecatered to. It has been found that this filtered natural water is devoid of impurities usually found in surface water of the rivers. |
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| Since this technique was found successful in some European countries, it was decided to try the technique on the banks of the river Ganga, which is one of the most polluted rivers and where the cost of cleaning the surface water is high. |
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| The experiment to be done at Haridwar, Varanasi and Patna will be studied further by Indian and EU scientists with an aim to provide safe drinking water to the population. |
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