Uttarakhand State Water Supply & Sewerage Organisation

The Uttarakhand State Water Supply & Sewerage Organisation – Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan (UJS) is an autonomous body of the Uttarakhand state government (> 4,250 employees). It currently operates and maintains 63 urban and 5,355 rural water supply schemes to provide wholesome water for approximately its 9 million population. Its main functions are: (1) to plan, promote, execute & operate efficient water supply schemes, (2) where feasible, to plan, promote, execute & operate sewage treatment and disposal schemes, treatment of industrial effluents, (3) to manage all of UJS’s affairs so as to provide the people of the area within its jurisdiction with wholesome water and where feasible, with efficient sewerage service, (4) to take such measures, as may be necessary, to ensure water supply in times of any emergency.

UJS operates and maintains bank filtration (BF/RBF) schemes for the provision of drinking water to urban and rural areas at presently more than 7 locations in the state, notable amongst them is the AquaNES site in Haridwar. UJS is experienced in research cooperation with AQUANES partners (HTWD) with whom they have been assessing existing BF schemes and constructed 5 new BF schemes. They recently participated in the EU Saph Pani project. In recent years they have been involved in a number of network and research projects on RBF. Consequently, UJS created the dedicated Riverbank Filtration Cell and its employees are regularly taking part in conferences, seminars and trainings on BF and post-treatment.

Main tasks in the project:

• WP1: Demonstration of bank filtration operation in Haridwar, coupling of bank filtration and inline-electrolysis in cooperation with AUTARCON. Innovative concepts for well operation & protection during floods and droughts. Assessment of advantages of siphon systems.
• WP7: Dissemination and exploitation of small systems combining BF and inline-electrolysis.