International Water Association Conference
M. Manickam, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Sakthi Sugars Ltd, addressing the International Water Association Conference at Kumaraguru College of Technology in Coimbatore.India and France plan to develop a “virtual” national institute for water, Bruno Rouot, Scientific Counsellor of the French Embassy, Bangalore, said here on Tuesday. ExpertsSpeaking to presspersons on the sidelines of the International Water Association conference that was held at Kumaraguru College of Technology (KCT) here, he said that the proposal was still at a nascent stage and discussions were on with experts. It could take two years to set up the institute.
The embassy had four research centres related to water in India and these were functioning in association with the local organisations. The centres worked on ground water, surface water, waste water treatment and training.Principal of the KCT, Joseph V. Thanikkal, explained that the college and the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) of France signed a Memorandum of Agreement in 2006 for research and development in agriculture, soil sciences, food technology and environment bio-technology.Under this co-operation, a specialised conference on small water and waste water systems and another on decentralised water and waste water international network were held here from February 6 to 9.(The International Water Association had nearly 50 such specialist groups).
About 250 papers were received for the conference and 125 were presented. Nearly 150 delegates, including 112 from 32 countries participated in the event.The objective of the conference was to propagate technology on small and waste water systems.The college had two new research programmes going on under the agreement with INRA.One was networking of institutes for water and waste water projects and another was advanced research to treat industrial and dairy effluents.As part of the conference, a one-day workshop on “Application of EcoSan Concepts in India – Current Practices and Challenges” was also held.This was organised by the specialist group on “Resources Oriented Sanitation” of the International Water Association (IWA).The conferences were supported by the IWA, Indian Water Works Association, the French Embassy and Siruthuli.
