New Delhi, Aug 27 : Emphasising a focus on developing policies and other operational interventions to achieve zero liquid discharge (ZLD) at city level, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) Rajiv Ranjan Mishra on Thursday said tackling implementation challenges for reuse of treated wastewater will help achieve the goal. Touching upon the work done within NMCG in collaboration with industries and ministries, Mishra said this is an aspirational topic and industries are already being mobilised to achieve it. "We need to focus on overall water cycle including the ecological and economical need and nothing should be wasted. We should not let out wastewater in the rivers and should consider naming this water differently based on its functionality for recycle and reuse," Mishra said at a virtual event where NMCG hosted the third 'Meet & Mingle' session on 'Zero Liquid Discharge Cities' on the final day of the Stockholm World Water Week 2021, a release said here. The DG shared that NMCG in collaboration with GIZ India has developed a national level framework for reuse of treated wastewater in India. He mentioned that Mathura Refinery project is a good example of wastewater reuse initiative of NMCG by collaborating with industries. Global Water Lead of KPMG, Sumouleendra Ghosh, while moderating the session, explained how the ZLD is a well-known concept but currently associated with industries only. "It is time to extend ZLD concept to Indian cities as well. We all are aware of climate change manifesting its threats through water related issues in the form of floods, inundation, sea level rise or droughts. Many Indian and global cities are already facing threats of acute water security and to manage and mitigate the risk we need to emphasize on recycle and reuse of treated wastewater," Ghosh said. GIZ's Jeremy Bird elaborated on the National Water Reuse Framework (NWRF) for India. Highlighting that various countries are using the treated water for different purposes such as industrial use, recreational activities and so on, he pointed out that India needs to incentivize the whole concept to push for implementation at a larger scale, the release said. Municipal Commissioner, Surat Municipal Corporation, Banchhanidhi Pani and chairman of Nagpur's Vishwaraj Group Arun Lakhani spoke of their experiences with using treated water for industry in their respective cities. Rajneesh Chopra, the global Head of VA Tech Wabag Ltd. spoke about the experiences from Chennai. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Dr Nupur Bahadur shared her thoughts on the importance of research and development through the Centre of Excellence. BK Agarwal, the CEO of the Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd was invited to elaborate on Mathura Refinery, wherein NMCG is also involved. IIT Kanpur's Professor Vinod Tare mentioned that the Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP) has also mentioned the concept of ZLD in the context of River Ganga. He primarily suggested to reuse treated wastewater on the basis of geographic locations. He also mentioned that it is important to have situation and area specific standards for reuse purposes, the release added. /IANS