The Hindu      29.10.2010

Remedy for water contamination

What an idea:Vemula Lakshmi Narayana from Tadipatri with his invention.

HYDERABAD: Despite the extravagance of dollars in millions through Public-Private Partnerships, one problem that remains from resolution in the third world countries is water contamination and the spread of disease thereof.

If Raqxa, a contrivance by Vemula Lakshmimnarayana(Ph: 9848391922) from Tadipatri town of Anantapur District, gains recognition and commercial production, people from rural India can hope to get potable water at nominal cost.

The ‘Solar Water Purifier with Integrated Storage and Automatic Supply' as mentioned by its architect in his patent application, is one among the 52 projects shortlisted for the ‘India Innovation Initiative-- i3 National Fair' being organised in the national capital on November 22 by the Confederation of Indian Industries, together with Department of Science and Technology and Agilent Technologies.

Raqxa competed with 850 entries from all over India, and what makes it special is the innovator's non-technical educational background. For Mr. Lakshmimnarayana, a postgraduate in literature, innovation has been the second nature and Raqxa, the acme of it. He earlier designed a perpetual calendar, a rat-trap, and a solar water heating system.

“Safe drinking water is one challenge faced by many countries in the world. According to a World Bank report, 10,000 people die every day due to water and excreta related diseases. My storage and supply system can assure continuous supply of disinfected drinking water by removing pathogenic micro-organisms through solar radiation,” assures Mr. Lakshminarayana.

Raqxa in fact uses the SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection) treatment approved by the World Health Organisation for affordable safe drinking water in small quantities by households. The method aims to treat water through solar radiation and involves filling water in Pet bottles and exposing them to the sun for five hours on a bright day or two days under cloudy sky.

In his device, Lakshminarayana used a number of glass purification cells to contain water for exposure upto 20 hours.

These will be fixed to a solar panel and kept at a suitable angle on the terrace. Untreated water will be pumped up from a water tank/can in the house, kept at a level higher than the discharge unit from where the treated water can be drawn. The whole system runs with gravitational pull and does not use power to build pressure, asserts Mr. Lakshminarayana.

The Times of India           13.10.2010

KMC pumps out of order, taps dry up

KOLKATA: Large areas across south Kolkata went dry on Wednesday as several pumps in the Garden Reach water treatment plant went out of order at the same time.

Trouble started on Monday when a couple of pumps started malfunctioning. The situation worsened on Tuesday after three major pumps went out of order. These pumps draw raw water from the Hooghly which is filtered at the plant and supplied to households. Though mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Tuesday said normal supply would be resumed by Wednesday afternoon, sources in the KMC water supply department conceded that regular supply could only be restored by Thursday morning.

So, when urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya was busy attending the inauguration of a new water treatment plant on Tuesday at Akra in the city's southern fringes, KMC water supply department officials had their fingers crossed. Since the Garden Reach water treatment plant supplies water to almost entire south Kolkata, municipal commissioner Arnab Roy has asked the KMC water supply department to take the restoration of water on a war footing. Some of the areas which could get severely affected include Garden Reach, Behala, Jadavpur, Kasba and parts of Tollygunge.