nagpur while we all discuss and understand carbon footprints not many would seriously trace their water footprint though scientists keep coming up with water treatment techniques that help one reduce reuse and recycle this resource it all depends on the endusers to minimize the urban water footprint and enhance the water security of region believe scientists this was part of the discussion that took place between experts from the field of clean water techniques from india and europe at a workshop organized by national environmental engineering research institute neeri and indian water works association iwwa the event also marked collaboration of scientists from india and european union on natural water systems and treatment technologies this project will be funded by the department of science and technology of india and eu it will consist of seven organizations each from both the sides including neeri iwwa confederation of real estate developers associations of india credai and the municipal corporations of nagpur and pune among other organizations from counties like austria germany italy spain and switzerland the technologies shared on this platform will be very useful to cope with water shortage faced by most cities across the world said sr wate director of neeri he said the aim of the collaboration was developing and deploying a string of multibarrier costeffective lowmaintenance lowenergy natural treatment systems at selected sites in maharashtra to treat recycle and reuse heavily polluted water while also integrating various water conservation techniques like rainwater and storm water harvesting pawan labshetwar secretary of city chapter of iwwa and head of the water technology and management division at neeri who will be the indian coordinator for the project said currently the water consumption in india is 135 litre per person per day with better management and putting gray and black water to nonpotable uses we could bring this down to 90 litres the techniques shared by the two countries would be tested and altered to suit the local conditions agreed vicepresident of city chapter of credai anil nair saying that these techniques could also be useful for builders with the growing awareness and inclination towards green buildings the situation in germany two decades ago was similar to that in india at present says mirko haenel research director of technology transfer at technology transfer zentre ttz and the european coordinator the average consumption was 200 litres a day which has come down to 80 litres a day this was because the users had to pay for the technologies to treat water which made it an expensive commodity making them think of ways to use it justifiably he explained he compared the situation to that in spain which had the lowest water price in europe and very high consumption for india it is best to depend on a layered approach in pricing water and use of a modernised traditional system of treatment techniques he said fabio masi technical director of iridra from italy summed up saying we have the right techniques and much research