Regional Workshop on 'Energy and Resource Efficiency in Urban Water Management' in Goa on September 27, 2013

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organized a one day regional workshop on ‘Energy and Resource Efficiency in Urban Water Management’ on September 27, 2013 at the The International Centre Goa. This workshop is part series of workshops being organised in different parts of India by CSE to assist the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. For further details of the earlier state/regional workshops at Jaipur, Guwahati, Lucknow, Kolkata and Puducherry (click on the name of city).

The workshop was supported by the Urban Development Department and Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA), Government of Goa – as the local partner state. The workshop is part of various activities supported by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission - Comprehensive Capacity Building Programme (JnNURM – CCBP), Ministry of Urban Development and Government of India. The workshop was attended by representatives of Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

At the inaugural session, Mr. Elvis Gomes, Director, DMA, Government of Goa welcomed the participants - key functionaries from the 14 Municipal Councils, Urban Development Department, Public Works Department, Ground Water Board, Pollution Control Board, Town and Country Planning, universities and civil institutions of Goa; in addition to municipal officials from local bodies of the Government of Maharashtra and Gujarat. He encouraged participants to imbibe learnings and channelize the lessons learnt towards the formulation of the forthcoming water and sanitation projects within the Goa State.  

Dr. Suresh Rohilla, CSE provided a brief background about CSE and the objectives of the workshop and the importance of resources and energy efficiency in urban water management that is envisaged in JnNURM Phase II. 

The Chief Guest of the programme, Adv. Francis D’Souza, Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Goa addressed the workshop participants. He congratulated CSE for getting all the relevant stakeholders on a common platform to discuss the very important issue of water and sanitation. He stated that for any action to succeed all the stakeholders need to work together, understand together and find solutions together for the problem to be solved. He noted that in spite of Goa being a small state they have not been able to handle issues and have lacked the foresight to manage issue of water supply and sanitation. He concluded by saying that the state needed to achieve international standards for water and sanitation issues in the state.

Other key speakers at the workshop included - Mr. Pradeep Kumar (ASE), Prof. Somanth Sen (IIT- Kharagpur), Prof. Shyam Asolekar (IIT- Mumbai) and Mr. Rajesh Pai (CDD, Bangalore). 

There were two panel sessions that dealt with operational challenges and strategies for mainstreaming reforms/ BMPs being envisaged in JnNURM Phase II. The first panel ‘Mainstreaming Energy & Resource efficiency in sustainable urban water management’, chaired by Elvis Gomes Director, DMA deliberated the need to develop decentralized water systems including effective rainwater harvesting systems from planning stage itself. The second panel on ‘Mainstreaming Energy and Resource efficiency in sustainable urban wastewater management’, chaired by S.T. Putttaraju, Chief Town Planner, Goa discussed potential and challenges in mainstreaming decentralized wastewater treatment systems and technologies. 

The concluding session was interactive and the participants highlighted the need to go beyond the discussion table and mainstream these alternate technologies. It was suggested that Directorate of Municipal Administration can take lead in developing a time bound plan while CSE can be invited to provide technical hand-holding support and capacity building for government officials as well as all other stakeholders.

The key participants of workshop included faculty  and researchers from IIT- Mumbai, IIT- Kharagpur, Goa University, BITS Pilani- Goa Campus; institutions (Goa Energy Development Agency, The Energy Research Institute (TERI) - Western Regional Centre, consultants - Alliance to Save Energy - Bangalore, Moziac Design, Digital & Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Detritus Solutions, Concept Biotech- Gujarat, and NGOs - Goa Civic & Consumer Action Network involved in the advocacy of sustainable urban water and wastewater management in target states.