New Delhi: Delhi NCR is already struggling hard to provide adequate drinking water fit for human consumption. The BIS, last year, ranked several cities on official water supply quality. Delhi was last. Out of the 28 test parameters, Delhi failed 19, Chennai 9, and Kolkata 10.

The Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) of NITI Aayog says that 70% of water supply is contaminated. Laboratory reports from East, West, North-East Delhi and Gurugram rated the supplies unfit for drinking primarily because of bacterial contamination. It is disheartening that more than 680 million people in India do not have access to safe water, resulting in 2 lakh deaths every year. The World Bank reports that 21 per cent of communicable diseases in India are owing to unsafe drinking water.

In the light of the above data released by Government authorities, having a water purifier at home is a necessity.

We all know safe and pure drinking water at home is essential for your well-being. Water which is an essential element to life also happens to be a good solvent. It has the capability to dissolve substances that comes in contact with it. And these could be chemicals, pollutants etc. which can be life threatening if consumed. Moreover, water itself contains abundance of organisms like bacteria and viruses and if swallowed, can lead to water borne diseases. Despite the fact that the tap water that you receive in your home is purified at source, it could still get contaminated while it is being transported to your house through pipelines, tankers etc.

“Most of the households receive water supplied by the municipal corporation. The source of the supply is unknown. At times, most of the households receive hard water which is not healthy for consumption in any form.  We as conscious and alarmed citizens are aware that contaminated and impure drinking water can lead to illness such as typhoid, diarrhea, jaundice etc. Also groundwater contains harmful chemicals like fluoride and arsenic which cannot be purified simply by boiling the water.

Microbial and organic contaminants cannot always be perceived by human senses. And traditional methods like boiling water or distilled water are just not enough to get rid of contaminants like arsenic, nitrate and fluoride.”

 

Most places, including major Indian cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru, it is reported water contamination by toxic chemical such as arsenic, lead and micro plastics requires RO technology for removal.

 

But the concern with RO water purifiers is that during the purification process of water, around 70 to 80% of water is wasted. With increased popularity and indiscriminate use of RO systems, it was leading to a huge wastage of water.

Further, the de-mineralization of water is not required if the input water has TDS less than 500 mg/litre. But the common people were unaware of this fact and were installing RO water purifiers without testing TDS in input water at their home.

To fix this problem, NGT asked Centre in May 2019 to ban RO water purifiers in areas where piped water supply has TDS count lower than 500mg/litre. This was challenged in the Supreme Court of India by Water Quality Association of India, which represents companies that make RO systems. The Supreme Court however declined to intervene and asked Water Quality Association to approach the government. The government has now issued a notification seeking all stake holder’s views on this issue.

The question arises is banning RO a solution when one-third of the families in Delhi is dependent on ROs for drinking water. After all, it is a matter of our health and the health of our loved ones.

Acute shortage and depleting groundwater levels together have alongside led to an upsurge in demand for water treatment products that helps save water by reducing wastage. Most of the water filtration companies are now innovating to develop the harvest from raw water.

Reports indicate that 98 districts in 13 states, have High TDS which can be purified only by RO systems. This is an answer alone to this the ban.