Peya Jal Suraksha - Development of Six Pilot Riverbank Filtration Demonstration Schemes in Different Hydrogeological Settings for Sustainable Drinking Water Supply (Part-I).

Abstract

River Bank Filtration (RBF) or simply, Bank Filtration (BF), as one of the alternate cost-effective natural treatment technologies for drinking water supply, has been a common practice in many European countries particularly, in urban and peri-urban areas, for more than a century. India has a large potential for use of RBF/BF for sustainable qualitative and quantitative production of drinking water, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra alluvium areas, coastal alluvium tracks and scattered inland pockets in different states where surface water bodies are hydraulically connected to the adjoining aquifer, surface water source is perennial and aquifers have good soil pores. Currently, only a fraction of RBF potential is in use in India. There is a pressing need to explore possibility of upscale of RBF technology in feasible locations particularly, in rural and sub-urban areas where organized drinking water supplies coverage is yet to take place. Selection of potential RBF sites, decision on appropriate distance of production well, flood proofing of the scheme, post-treatment requirement, risk and efficiency assessment, river-aquifer interaction understanding, etc. are some of the important design considerations which need a good understanding and knowledgebase before such schemes are implemented and promoted at a large scale.