Water management: wastewater treatment and water demand modelling
Student name: Ms Vasudha Chopra
Guide: Dr Sukanya Das
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: An increasing water demand has led to a water scarcity situation in India i.e. lack of water resources to meet the need of the population that has created a huge demand supply gap. Delhi’s tremendously growing population puts enormous pressure on the water supply sources. Rapid extraction of the ground water in order to meet the high demand has led to a fall in the ground water table by 4-10 meters in the past 10 years. The domestic sector generates a huge amount of wastewater; in 2014, share of the domestic sector in Delhi’s total water requirement was 62.7% (Economic Survey 2014-15). The capacity utilization of treatment plants in Delhi has been suboptimal and inefficient. Water reuse is a way to curb the demand supply gap as well as to achieve the objective of water conservation. Hence, the study aims to look at a common property framework with community participation in construction and maintenance of a Sewage Treatment Plant that treats the domestic wastewater and then it is supplied back to the households for reuse.
To estimate the factors that drive people towards participating and contributing for a treatment plant, a survey is conducted using the Contingent Valuation Method that focuses on developing contingent market scenarios in reference to wastewater treatment and water quality improvement. The socio-economic factors as well as respondent’s perceptions play a significant role in determining the same. Further, the study estimates water demand using the household data from the field survey.
Keywords: Community Participation, Contingent Valuation, Willingness to Pay, Wastewater Treatment, Water Scarcity
