Few days back, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said at a public event that he watered the plants in his Delhi bungalow with his own urine. He also added that he used to collect urine in a 50 litre can and instructed his gardener to water some plants with it. There was such a big difference – it grew one and a half times bigger than the other plants. The statement was greeted with contemptuous ridicule and disbelief. On social media, it drew funnier remarks and resulted into trend #GadkariLeaks.
At a first instance, the idea sounds stupid but he is partially true. Scientifically, Human urine is a great source of nutrients and can be used as a fertiliser. Human urine contains phosphorus, which is needed for survival for everything in life, but it’s a limited product, and the mines are already exhausted. But to use Human urine as a fertilizer, phosphorus needs to be extracted.
In Amsterdam, recovery plants are installed at public urinals which separate the phosphorus and nitrogen from the urine.Afterwards, they are cleaned and transformed into struvite, a slow-release fertilizer. Even poo is being utilised by Amsterdam people and that the entire wastewater treatment plant for the Amsterdam area—which serves a million people—runs entirely on electricity that is produced from solid waste.
