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Today's Headlines - 29 August 2023
Water shortages reduce from wastewater
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

Europe has experienced severe heat and drought over the last few summers, and 2023 has been no different. Vast swathes of Central and Southern Europe are simply too dry from a lack of rainfall. Human-induced climate change has led to more heat waves and drought and is one reason for Europe’s growing water crisis. At the same time, demand for the resource is growing, with industry and agriculture extracting more water from the ground, rivers and lakes than can be replenished.

Who uses the most water?

Industry uses half of Europe’s water resources, while a further 40% is hoovered up by agriculture and 10% by households.
In the European Union, water scarcity impacts 11% of all citizens. Falling water supplies can lead to households facing use restrictions. But the problem also impacts the energy sector.
In 2022, French authorities had to switch off some nuclear power plants because river water used for cooling them was too warm.
Last year, the dry summer also reduced hydropower in Norway. Farmers, though, who use large amounts of water for crop irrigation, are also hard hit by water shortages and drought.
Could using industry wastewater help farmers?

One solution for agriculture could be to use more treated industrial and domestic wastewater for irrigation and protect valuable freshwater supplies. Six times more waste water could be reused across the EU than current levels.
Freshwater resources are scarce and increasingly under pressure. In times of unprecedented temperature peaks, we need to stop wasting water and use this resource more efficiently.
New EU regulations on minimum requirements for water reuse for agricultural irrigation came into force this summer.
The regulations stipulate that EU member states must process communal and industrial wastewater so it can be used by farmers.
Processing and reusing water could replace a fifth of irrigation that currently uses groundwater in Spain and Portugal, said the European Commission.
In France, Italy and Greece, it could be as much as 45%. Wastewater could cover all irrigation needs in EU countries with smaller agricultural sectors.
Leaky pipes lead to massive water waste

One way to save water that is often overlooked is maintaining the pipes that shuttle the resource to homes and businesses.
On average, a quarter of the EU’s freshwater is lost during transport to taps because of leaks and broken pipes.
Currently, countries most affected by drought and a lack of rain — such as Spain, Italy and Bulgaria — invest the least amount of money per citizen to fix leaky water infrastructure.

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Today's Headlines - 01 September 2023
First indigenous electric tractor
GS Paper - 3 (Energy)

India has launched the country's first indigenous fully-electric tractor, named CSIR-PRIMA ET11. The tractor was developed by India's state-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Central Mechanical Research Engineering Institute (CSIR-CMERI). The CSIR-PRIMA E11 is designed to cater to small and marginal farmers with around two hectares or less of farmland.

Salient features of the CSIR PRIMA ET11

The first very important point is that entire tractor has been designed and manufactured with indigenous components and technologies.
The main purpose of the tractor is to cater the demand of agriculture field application, it has been designed in such a way that its dynamics, weight distribution, transmission engagements, then lever and pedal position everything has been well designed and considered.
Another USP of the developed technology is that it Women friendly. For this we have given special attention in the ergonomics, for eg: All the levers, switches etc have been placed for easy approach to the women.
The farmers can charge the tractor using conventional home charging sockets in 7 to 8 hours and operate the tractor for more than 4 hours at the field. Otherwise, a tractor can run more than 6 hours in case of normal Haulage operation.
Coming to Transmission: The tractor is being designed with a robust and efficient transmission system by using the semi Synchronized type gearing system. The design helps to achieve the desired efficiency in min cost.
The tractor is equipped with best in class hydraulic with lifting capacity of 500 kg or more. It implies that the tractor can lift implements required not only for field operation but also hauling operation. It is also to be mentioned that the tractor can tow 1.8-ton capacity trolley with a max speed of 25 kmph.
Coming to electric aspects the battery we have chosen as the state of art Lithium ion battery with Prismatic cell confirmation. It has deep discharge capability for farming application and has a life of more than 3000 cycles.
Another distinct feature, we have provided that there is a port called V2L i.e. vehicle to load, this means when the tractor is not in operation, it battery power can be utilized for other secondary applications like pump and irrigation etc.

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