Birmingham-led research promises water boost for farmers in India

University of Birmingham water experts have designed a low-energy, high-efficiency means of purifying water in India's rural farming communities, which could allow farmers to safely use high-saline groundwater and wastewater to grow crops. Working in the Gujarat region of India, scientists in the Birmingham-led INDIA-H20 project have used emerging membrane technologies that allow saline groundwater and domestic/industrial wastewaters to be safely and efficiently recycled. Based on field work in the village of Lodhwa, which confirmed the poor quality and availability of water in the region, scientists have now designed a system that can recover 80% of the unusable groundwater fed into it - producing usable water with low energy consumption. They are also developing ways of growing special crops using the brine solution produced as a result of desalination, as well as progressing plant-based treatments to recycle domestic wastewater and developing solar-energy to break down pollutants in industrial wastewater. Groundwater is the major source of water across India, with 85% of the population dependent on it. Much of this groundwater, however, is of poor quality and water below 60% of India's countryside is too saline for human consumption or conventional agriculture. Over-extraction and pollution of groundwater are also making it more difficult to access clean water.