Water is a scarce resource, as we all know. Still, we come across situations where water is being wasted and some cases where water is not even reaching some homes. Therefore, preserving water is very important for the ecology as well as the community.
According to UNICEF, half of the world's population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025. About 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030. By 2040, roughly 1 in 4 children worldwide will live in extremely high water stress areas.
We at Delhi Airport know the criticality of water shortage and keeping in mind all these water scarcity conditions, have adopted different water management initiatives. Delhi Airport is taking different measures and also exploring different prospects for becoming a water-positive airport.
Moving forward toward our goal, Delhi Airport has come up with two huge underground reservoirs for rainwater harvesting. The two reservoirs are present; one near Terminal 1 and the other near Terminal 2 of Delhi Airport. These will become operational in the coming monsoon. These will help store about 9 million litres of rainwater in the reservoir. The stored rainwater would be able to supplement the water demand and will help in water sustenance at the airport. Delhi Airport also has ~350 rainwater harvesting structures placed within the stormwater drains to ensure recharge of underground water, another 300+ such structures are being developed in the airside area.
In addition to this, Delhi Airport has installed a 16.6 Million Litres per Day (MLD) zero liquid discharge sewage treatment plant within the airport premises. The entire wastewater is treated in this facility and further reused for various purposes like irrigation, toilet flushing, and HVAC make up water. We have also set up another state-of-the-art water treatment plant which provides about 5 million litres of best quality water per day for passengers, with minimum wastage during the whole treatment process. Furthermore, Delhi Airport has used water-efficient fixtures and faucets throughout the airport in all the buildings to conserve water. Highly advanced fixtures are also being used in the Terminal 1 renovation project to minimise water consumption.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti felicitated Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) with the National Water Award-2019. DIAL has also received FICCI Water Award 2021. Apart from these, our water management initiatives also received Gold Level recognition in Airports Council International’s Green Airport Recognition Program in 2020.
Our motive is to build a better future for the coming generations.
