Novel filters are here to solve rural India’s drinking water woes
dna correspondent @dna
In India, one of five deaths is attributed to contaminated drinking water. Even after 66 years of
independence, thousands are forced to travel miles to fetch water. Add to this, the struggle to filter and boil it to make it drinkable.
However, a domestic company, Livinguard Technologies, has a solution for this.
They have come up with several scalable products that can purify water in remote areas, through special household filters based on gravity filtration. Around eight litres of water can be stored in the filter and 4-6 litres can be purified hourly.
“We were able to theoretically find the best possible solution that would work on all three organisms, bacteria, viruses and fungi, effectively,” said Sanjeev Swamy, chief executive officer, Livinguard Technologies.
There is a similar product, ‘matka filter,’ which is placed on a pot to purify water using the same technology. To purify large quantities, Livinguard Technologies has come up with scalable community filters, which can be used in
hospitals, villages, schools etc. These filters will help kill the most minute bacteria, preventing water-borne diseases. They cost less than Rs1 lakh each and provide pure drinking water to over 2,000 schoolchildren at less than three paise a litre.
The company has also tied up with various NGOs and charitable trusts — Watershed Organization Trust, Bisleri Trust and Swades foundation, to name a few. Livinguard filters have been distributed to several thousand rural households across
Gujarat and Maharashtra. These cost less than Rs1,000.
“The feedback after only a few months of use has been incredible. I have heard from villagers of not only the positive changes in taste and quality, but also the remarkable decrease in water-borne illnesses like diarrhoea and dysentery. The impact on health and well being of BPL families exemplifies the potential and success of Livinguard,” Swamy said.
Unlike most other technologies in the market currently, Livinguard is environment-friendly, does not require electricity, catering specifically to resource-poor areas, and does not produce any waste water, ensuring the careful use of scarce
resources without using any chemicals to purify water.
The company also owns a proprietary textile coating technology, which impregnates the entire cross-section of the fabric mechanically, killing and preventing the reproduction of bacteria and viruses, without any chemicals leaving the textile. “We then went about developing these chemistries so that they were compatible with textiles and then applied the chemistry on textiles while approving its safety,” Swamy said. The company has used this coated textile to design the cost-effective water filtration solutions at the rural, urban and
community level. more
dna correspondent @dna
In India, one of five deaths is attributed to contaminated drinking water. Even after 66 years of
independence, thousands are forced to travel miles to fetch water. Add to this, the struggle to filter and boil it to make it drinkable.
However, a domestic company, Livinguard Technologies, has a solution for this.
They have come up with several scalable products that can purify water in remote areas, through special household filters based on gravity filtration. Around eight litres of water can be stored in the filter and 4-6 litres can be purified hourly.
“We were able to theoretically find the best possible solution that would work on all three organisms, bacteria, viruses and fungi, effectively,” said Sanjeev Swamy, chief executive officer, Livinguard Technologies.
There is a similar product, ‘matka filter,’ which is placed on a pot to purify water using the same technology. To purify large quantities, Livinguard Technologies has come up with scalable community filters, which can be used in
hospitals, villages, schools etc. These filters will help kill the most minute bacteria, preventing water-borne diseases. They cost less than Rs1 lakh each and provide pure drinking water to over 2,000 schoolchildren at less than three paise a litre.
The company has also tied up with various NGOs and charitable trusts — Watershed Organization Trust, Bisleri Trust and Swades foundation, to name a few. Livinguard filters have been distributed to several thousand rural households across
Gujarat and Maharashtra. These cost less than Rs1,000.
“The feedback after only a few months of use has been incredible. I have heard from villagers of not only the positive changes in taste and quality, but also the remarkable decrease in water-borne illnesses like diarrhoea and dysentery. The impact on health and well being of BPL families exemplifies the potential and success of Livinguard,” Swamy said.
Unlike most other technologies in the market currently, Livinguard is environment-friendly, does not require electricity, catering specifically to resource-poor areas, and does not produce any waste water, ensuring the careful use of scarce
resources without using any chemicals to purify water.
The company also owns a proprietary textile coating technology, which impregnates the entire cross-section of the fabric mechanically, killing and preventing the reproduction of bacteria and viruses, without any chemicals leaving the textile. “We then went about developing these chemistries so that they were compatible with textiles and then applied the chemistry on textiles while approving its safety,” Swamy said. The company has used this coated textile to design the cost-effective water filtration solutions at the rural, urban and
community level. more
Viewed by 50
Teach the people about cleanliness and stop pollute rivers. Arrange potable water we must learn from sweden who has good cleanliness and pure potable water through recycling process. more
Jun 24
Dear All, this article appeared in today's DNA, Mumbai edition. As I was unable to post the pdf or jpeg file, I pasted the article here. I have not written it :) Later I also shared the pdf file once the attachment option worked. more
Jun 24
Vijayalaxmi had indeed give important information but seems as advertisement of a company. Nano technology in water purification is well known which don't use chemicals UV or any harmful methods. Many companies produce these kind of equipments & widely available. I am using such technology for last 8 years and really good. The only thing is that it require pre-filter to avoid muddy water which can destroy the membrane. more
Jun 24
If we want to purify water, we need to remove the dusts and contamination from the water. Its not possible to pour clean water to make contaminated water pure. If we stop the drainage water and contaminated water in mixing with river water, just think how many gallons of pure water we will get from river water. Go back few years before, we didn't used any chemistry to purify the water. We did not suffered from so many disease like now. We don't have this much doctor like now. Technology is developing and the same time problems also developing. What happened to our system which functions good before not functioning now? Is there any company that will stop mixing drainage water with river water? Every company look for profit. Company will not get profit in doing this work. Even government will not get profit, so government also will not think to stop mixing drainage water with river water. more
Jun 24
This is a valuable input from Vijayalakshmi which will make difference in the life of common people. more
Jun 24
