13 February 2019
2:00PM – 3:15PM
Session Topics:
Reduce, reuse and recycle: Where do our cities stand?
Segregating at the source: New solutions for waste management
Water policy, imagination and innovation: interdisciplinary approaches
Mitigating the loss of water using smart solutions
While there is a lot of emphasis on transportation and infrastructure development, water management in India remains limited to some treatment of waste water through quality monitoring, and smart metering. Lakes, ponds and wetlands in urban areas are being reclaimed for building and development instead of being recognized as the critical natural infrastructure that cities depend upon. Not only is this counterproductive to managing our water resources well, but it adds to our waste management challenges as well. Over 62 million tons of municipal solid waste is generated in India per annum, filling our landfills without leaving resources for processing and treatment.
India does have the capability to address these challenges, and through better coordination of various departments and ministries, waste and wastewater can be held to a high standard, and would also provide an additional and vital source of a city’s resources, through the basic propositions of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. The session ‘From Trash to Treasure’ will explore what’s next for India as part of its green revolutions, and how we can all play a small part into improving and conserving our resources.