Wastewater Irrigation in Gujarat - People in Centre Consulting

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Wastewater Irrigation in
Surroundings of Bhavnagar City
Bhavnagar in Gujarat was founded in the year 1724 by Bhavsinhji Gohil (1703–1764)
and is named after him. The city is the administrative center of the Bhavnagar district.
It is situated 198 km from the state capital Gandhinagar and to the west of the Gulf of
Khambhat. Bhavnagar is the fifth largest city of Gujarat. It is also known as
the cultural capital of Saurashtra. The city has a population of 0.59 million as per
Census 2011.
History of Sewage Farming
The Maharaja of Bhavnagar Shri Krishnakumarji commissioned the first STP of
Gujarat in Bhavnagar in 1940 at Tilaknagar. It was designed by Mr. Amaze H Costa
from United Kingdom. Its operations were discontinued in 1998 as it was beyond
economical repair.
Farming with sewage water was started with the establishment of this STP in 1940.
In the village of Ruva, it is being practiced since 72 years in a systematic manner.
The ‘Bhavnagar Ruva Sahkari Mandali Limited’, a cooperative in Ruva village was
formed to use sewage water and to supply other inputs in 1940. At that time there
were 162 members and around 300 ha (1800 bigha) area was using sewage water
for irrigation. Currently, though there are 162 farmers in the village, sewage water is
being used by 135 farmers. This is because half of the earlier irrigated land became
part of the Bhavnagar city with the introduction of a town-planning scheme. Now, only
149 ha (900 bighas) are irrigated using wastewater. A common 100 hp pump is
operational. The members of the Cooperative pay its maintenance and electricity bills
collectively. The water charges paid are around Rs. 780 per ha per season. It is to be
noted that no chemical fertilizer has been used since 1940 for agriculture here.
Therefore, the farmers wondered whether the produce here could be certified as
‘organic’.
Water Supply Situation
The information shared by BMC points that the current water supplies in the city is at
90 MLD per day. This entire 90 MLD is surface water, purchased by the Corporation
from Mahi irrigation scheme and Shetrunji Dam. In the next three years, the city plans
to augment its current water supply by 15 MLD.
Sewage Situation
The total wastewater treatment capacity in the city is nil since the only STP is nonfunctional
and the oxidations ponds are also not working. The city needs a treatment
capacity of 72 MLD based on assumption of considering 80 percent of water supplied
as wastewater generated, all of which is in deficit. However, there are plans to
develop 100 MLD of treatment capacity by building STPs of 60 and 40 MLD
capacities respectively. If achieved, this will be sufficient to treat entire sewage.
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