Blue Hues of Holi —
The Global Water Crisis and Wastewater Management Innovations
Holi is a much-awaited festival celebrated in India to mark the hopeful beginning of the harvest season. Every year, people all over the country smear colors and douse each other with water.
In spirit, this festival celebrates the victory of good over evil but Holi is often associated with a waste of unimaginable amounts of water every single year. Water is essential to life, yet 785 million people in the world, 1 in every 9 people in the world, lack access to it. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, the water crisis is the #5 global risk in terms of impact on society. Over 50% of the Indian population does not have access to safe water for consumption. With this ongoing global water crisis, India cannot possibly afford to spare water for this purpose.
To mitigate this global water crisis, new innovations in the field of environmental science and technology around the world are visibly making scalable progress.
Several faculty members of ICT have also been involved in research of various water purification and wastewater treatment techniques. Some of them are mentioned below.
- Prof. Pushpito Ghosh has patent applications for a pneumatic pressure-driven ultrafiltration system suitable for rural households, and for a process that lowers the freshwater and detergent consumption in household laundry washing machines.
- Prof. Kumudini Marathe has been a contributor in papers detailing the use of a technique known as Micellar Enhanced Ultrafiltration for the removal of substances such as heavy metal ion mixtures, Molybdenum (VI) ions, and Ni (II) ions from wastewater.
- Prof A. B. Pandit has been involved in the use of a cavitation-based approach for the treatment of cyanide-containing wastewater.
The Holi celebration is slowly but surely adapting to use less water and rely more on the vast variety of eco-friendly colors available for use. These colors can either be purchased from trusted sources or can be made using ingredients like flowers, pulses, turmeric, leaves, etc. As responsible citizens of society who are privileged enough to understand the need of eco-friendly holi, we must adapt and encourage it.
Be it diving deeper into the magnanimous ocean of research to make a sizable difference, or by pouring little pails of small steps for water conservation every day — it is still not too late to act and do our part in responsibly using water. Our continued, collective efforts and cooperation is what would minimize the impact of this global water crisis. Because every drop counts to make an ocean, right?
On this note, The Institute of Chemical Technology wishes you a safe, happy, and ecologically wise Holi, and with the hope that the canvas of your life is filled with colors of prosperity.