If you have safe water for drinking, does it mean that all the others also have similar provisions? WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene has noted that 1 in 3 people globally does not have access to safe drinking water. Does it make any sense?

We all are in a haste to make a living, and we all know we cannot live without water.

Basically, we need to purify the water before using it. Now let’s address the elephant in the room.

Absolute Water, an emerging player in the future of sustainable living.

Long story short

What is absolute water?

Absolute Water is a total water management company with engineering capabilities to undertake and execute turnkey solutions for water & waste-water management. Located in Delhi with 15+installations and growing around the country. They registered their company in January 2016. They have a strong technical, proposal, and process engineering team along with project management and site engineers, and operators. Absolute Water has installed India’s first 100% Organic Sewage Treatment Plant that treats domestic sewage and converts it into clean water without the use of any chemicals and is NON-RO in nature in order to maintain the natural vitamins and minerals of water.

Fascinating product

Principle of Bio-STP

The BIOFILTER works on the principle of vermi-filtration where specially bred worm species and a mix of bacteria act on the suspended and dissolved solids in the raw Sewage and biologically degrade in an environmentally safe manner. This is a continuous process; therefore the treated sewage keeps flowing through an inclined drain at the floor of the bio-filter into the treated sewage tank which can be used for further treatment or irrigation/horticulture etc.

Basically, the filter is a three-level-based filter. First level –VERMI-FILTRATION, Second Level-FILTRATION SYSTEM AND OXIDATION, and the third level – MEMBRANE FILTRATION AS ADVANCED TREATMENT (WRS). Bio-Filter System is High efficient and multi-filter medium that includes worms, specially developed microbes, organic & in-organic media. Filtration through a natural gravity sand filter removes the final traces of suspended solids in the water. Specialized membrane filtration System for converting the treated water into potable water quality matching BIS Drinking water standards.

Problems addressed through Bio-STP

An estimated 62,000 million liters per day of sewage are generated in urban areas, while the treatment capacity across India is half of that. Currently, 93 percent of untreated sewage finds its way into our water bodies leading to various waterborne diseases, agricultural contamination as well as environmental degradation.

In most of the villages and small towns in India, sewage flows untreated, either into the ponds and rivers or percolates into the groundwater, Even in metropolitan towns, like Delhi, more than 70% of the sewage remains untreated and flows into the river Yamuna Water crisis being severe in several metropolitan cities and towns where we have come to a point of day zero.

Absolute Water address this major problem by providing 100% organic water recovery decentralized systems, which are simple, effective, affordable, and moreover can be operated by unskilled labor.

Social & Environmental impacts of Bio-STP

  • Absolute Water provides safe and clean drinking water from a source that is free –namely sewage. This has a two-pronged effect
    • Managing a pollutant and converting it into a green renewable source.
    • Mitigating leaching of the water pollutants, therefore, containing disease and death by contaminated water.
  • Absolute Water is currently treating over 3 million liters of sewage every day that can provide safe and clean drinking water to over 6 lakh people a day. As per the national drinking water scheme, every person should have 55 liters of drinking water daily.
  • The rate of drinking water through the treatment is INR 2 paise/liter and the rate of non-potable water is INR 0.6 paise/liter. Therefore being the lowest cost in the country, Absolute Water is able to contribute to the economic and financial growth of the country.
  • The organic media(wood chips) has to be refilled once a year, which is a simple job with a nominal budget as the wood chips are naturally easily available in almost all parts of our country. The replenished media is not sludge. It is a pure bio-fertilizer that can be used directly for agricultural/horticultural applications without any dewatering equipment/principle.

Start-up Motivation

Absolute Water, the sustainable start-up is unique in there ways of:-

  1. Absolute Water does not use any Chemicals whatsoever, therefore it is justified as Organic.
  2. No sludge generation, therefore, no sludge handling costs.
  3. Minimal electricity is required for plant operation, as it needs just needs power for feeding and for the advanced oxidation step.
  4. 100% of the treated water can be re-used safely making it a high recovery rate for non-potable applications.
  5. Minimal operation and maintenance cost, as the entire design is based on gravity.
  6. Noise, since there is no aeration equipment required.
  7. The rejection from the system has been tackled by generating a form of liquid soil conditioners which compiles to all the stringent norms of CPCB.
  8. It has the shortest stabilization time overall the conventional technologies.
  9. Organic material & warms effectively working in Temperatures ranging from 2°C to 50°C.
  10. Due to no sludge formation, it eliminates the problem of sludge dewatering, handling, and disposal in addition it also saves time and energy consumed during de-sludging activities
  11. Has a very low power requirement and can also be catered via solar panels.
  12. Extremely low operating costs as there are no major motors, pumps, dosing system, etc. to be maintained.
  13. This technology does not generate any solid waste instead the earthworm converts the organic media and organic matter present in the sewage into excellent vermicompost (every 8-10 months) which has fair economic value for sale. This is one of the most unique characteristics of this Bio-STP, thereby enabling it to be an economically viable and self-sustaining plant that gives financial advantages to the end-user in a circular manner

Goals of Absolute Water

As far Company Goals are concerned, Absolute Water want to be recognized as a one-stop solution for water recovery from sewage and its mission is to -:

  1. Treat Domestic sewage at the source in order to disable its flow of it into our main water bodies which has a direct impact on climate change.
  2. Provide a sustainable & economical supply of water and manure continuously
  3. Create a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) Industry in an organic manner.
  4. Treat water that is unfit for use or contaminated in Drought affected areas to provide clean safe water.

Conclusion

It is no doubt that Absolute Water is an emerging game-changer in the field of sustainable safe drinking water harvesting. Bio-STP will play a leading role in making sustainable living as far as waste-water management is concerned. Water is inevitable and let’s hope Absolute Water will make the way to sustainable living much easier.