e-STP at IARI

Union agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh recently inaugurated eco-friendly sewage water treatment plant (e-STP) in the Water Technology Centre of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) Delhi. The Centre engaged primarily in efficient use of water resources in agriculture, has developed the e-STP. The facility is spread over 1.42 hectares and is capable of treating 2.2 million liters of sewage per day from the Krishi Kunj Colony, at a cost of approx. `1.2 crore and with a potential to irrigate 330 acres of IARI farmland. The e-STP has 3-treatment cells (of 80 metre by 40 metre dimension each) and it ensures complete gravity flow of the wastewater from the sewage wells to the treated water containing cell of the system. The noteworthy feature of this facility is that the environmental stress is 33 times lesser than that of a conventional sewage treatment plant (STP) and output i.e. treated water is associated with significantly lower turbidity, BOD, Nitrate, Phosphate, Lead, Iron, Nickel and Sulphate.