Time and again, when the city talks about cleaning the Cooum river, interesting suggestions spring up to rejuvenate the polluted waterway.
While the recent solution of the Water Resources Department is to form a baby canal in the middle of the river to ensure water flow throughout the year, research institutions and private consultancy firms suggest technical solutions to purify the polluted river.
Scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) say effluent treatment systems which can prevent pollutants at the source and dry sludge ‘hygenisation’ technology which will treat waste to separate solid waste from the sewage might be effective.
J. Daniel Chellappa, senior scientist, Technical Coordination Wing, BARC, said the dry sludge hygenisation technology will supplement the sewage treatment processes. “We just need to add another unit in the plant that will convert sludge into bio-manure. This will keep Cooum clean,” he said. BARC has extended its technological solutions to the River Ganga cleanup mission as well.
R. Panneerselvam, a structural engineer of city-based Kaveri Project consultancy, pitched a technical solution to purify Cooum. He suggested that water from Cooum be pumped to a solar heating system that will allow water to evaporate, resulting in the sediment getting collected at the tank’s bottom. “The evaporated water will then be condensed into water again in a coolant tank. This pure water can be released into the river again. If 10 lakh litres of water is filtered daily, Cooum river can be purified in a year,” says Mr.Panneerselvam who has submitted his design to State government and other research organisations.
