India and Singapore sign MoU on recycling and reuse

The National Institute for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise-Temasek Foundation International have signed a memorandum of understanding on water reuse.

The agreement marks the start of the second phase of India’s urban management programme on water recycling and reuse.

The programme will include capacity building workshops for states Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Puducherry and West Bengal.

The signing was attended by Niti Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant, India’s ministry of drinking water and sanitation secretary Parameswaran Iyer, and the high commissioner of Singapore to India Lim Thuan Kuan.

Consultants from Singapore shared their experience of developing water reuse projects. A delegation from India is now expected to visit Singapore.

More than 30 per cent of urban water supply and 70 per cent of rural water in India comes from groundwater, a source which is depleting day-by-day.

India’s population doubled between 1975 and 2010 to 1.2 billion people. The county is projected to become the world’s most populous by 2024; by 2030, it will be home to 1.5 billion people – the largest-ever state in world history.