Solar based bio filter plant installed at Khanderavpura to purify waste water and make it useful for agriculture

We can imagine how the once-filthy village is today moving towards economic prosperity through the systematic and scientific use of waste water. Khanderavpura village under Dabhasa Gram Panchayat in Padra Taluka is one such example using Solar based bio filter plant installed to purify waste water and make it useful for agriculture.

Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India take note of probably first such experiment in Gujarat in collaboration with NGOs and industrial units. The village was once declared as Cholera infected but now a new direction has been given to this problem.

Manoj Patel, Sarpanch of Dabhasa Gram Panchayat said that the villagers were suffering due to exercise filth and that effect their health. As part of permanent solution to it, the bio-filter plant has been set up in the village to purify the waste water and used it for agriculture purpose.

All the waste water of the village is collected in one place and purified in the plant. This purified water is then given to the farmers for irrigation at a nominal rate of Rs. 20 per hour. The amount is used for repair and maintenance cost of the plant.

This is the probably first bio-filter plant in the entire state to treat wastewater in Khanderavpura village. The plant is powered entirely by solar energy with commendable cooperation of the state government. Around Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 per month is also saved in electricity bill.

Mukeshbhai Jadav, a farmer of the village, says that the water purified in this plant is beneficial for them as most of the farmers in the village cultivate vegetables. Consumption of chemical fertilizers has been reduced by fifty per cent. Farmers are also getting affordable prices for their produce. So as the cost of production decreases and the income of the farmers increases, the farmers are moving towards economic prosperity. Compost beds have been made in every farmer's farm in which vermi compost manure is made. In these compose beds, farmers dump their household waste. Not only that, every house in the village has a toilet so that the village has become clean and pure.

So another farmer said that 50% of the farmers in the village use this water for full organic farming. Bhavar Upadhyay of Trans Bio Filter said that comprehensive steps have been taken with the help of NGOs to make this village with a population of only 190 households zero waste. The village waste water is collected in one place and 1.60 lakh liters of water is purified daily by the bio filter plant and given to the farmers for irrigation.

Senior officials of the Center and the state government visited the bio-filter plant in the village. Recently, officials of the National Water Commission and the National Ground Water Board of New Delhi visited the plant and got in-depth details about the plant from the villagers.

This experiment of Khanderavpura has shown a new direction of rural development by covering various dimensions like clean India, clean Gujarat, utilization of solar energy, dirt free village, purifying dirty water and saving water from it under one umbrella.