The Hindu 19.11.2010
Mobile water treatment plant comes to rescue of people
Staff Reporter
The system can package 4,000 half-litre water sachets in an hour
It not only desalinates water but also prevents spread of post-flood epidemics
– Photo: G.RAMAKRISHNA
On the go: A truck-mounted mobile water treatment plant in operation at a
contaminated pond in Karmanghat.
HYDERABAD: Water, water all around, but scarcely a drop to drink. One
of the biggest predicaments any victim caught in a natural calamity,
especially floods, faces is accessing potable drinking water.
True, air-dropped water sachets have been a solution religiously
adhered to for many years, but then not all of them reach the marooned,
and quite often many are lost beyond their reach.
Coming to their rescue are truck-mounted mobile water treatment
plants conceptualised and developed by city-based Smaat Aqua
Technologies that also house a reverse osmosis water treatment system to
remove contaminants from untreated water.
Filter
The system can filter substances like bacteria, algae, viruses,
fungi, iron, sulphur and other man-made chemical pollutants like
cadmium, chromium, arsenic, magnesium, calcium, nitrates, fluoride and
chloride.
Its purification technology can treat any type of contaminated water
from septic tank discharge, brackish water and groundwater mixed with
sewerage and black water to sea ingress, industrial site waste and
drainage (silt, sand, alkali, oil, chemical) and bio-degradable and
non-biodegradable organic wastes, according to Karunakara M Reddy,
managing director, Smaat Aqua.
The company demonstrated the effectiveness of the system at a
contaminated pond at Karmanghat on the outskirts. Even as turbid water
entered the system through a braided chlorinated polyvinyl chloride
(CPVC) pipe into the raw water tank, 11 stages later it came out
sparkling clear – fit for human consumption.
Churning out 2,000 litres of water an hour, the system can package 4,000 half-litre water sachets on the spot.
Powered by a 15 KW diesel generator, the portable treatment plant’s
ultra filtration unit, reverse osmosis unit, ozone generator and oxygen
concentrator (fine polishes the water removing any last traces of
bacteria or virus) before the packaging systems do their job.
Seventy per cent of the input water comes out fit for drinking in the
process. The residual water 30 per cent could be used for other
purposes like cleaning, washing, etc.
“This is very effective as it not only desalinates the water but also
prevents the spread of post-flood epidemics,” Mr. Reddy avers. Floods
play havoc with Orissa, West Bengal and Assam every year.
Efficacy
Seeing the efficacy of the system, the West Bengal government’s
Directorate of Public Health Engineering has entered into a contract for
11 mobile water treatment plants. Smaat Aqua (www.smaataqua.com) will
maintain each of the units at a cost of Rs.1.17 crore for a three-year
period.