Need of water purifier.
About 40 million people (over 75% are children) are affected by water borne diseases every year. Nearly six million children below the age of 14 years suffer from fluorosis due to fluoride contamination in water. Arsenic is another dangerous contaminant in ground water, posing a health of risk more than 10 million people in the country. The other contaminations, which leads to Diarrhoea, Cholera, Typhoid, Hepatitis, etc, is also at the alert level in India.
Contamination due to Ferrous and Non-Ferrous salts in water is also another major concern. Medical expenditure on water borne diseases is estimated to be Rs.2400 crores annually in India.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set international guidelines for safe drinking water. Almost all countries have drinking water quality regulations, often inspired by WHO guidelines.
According to a United Nations report, over 1.1 billion people are currently without safe drinking water. It is predicted that a significant fraction of the global population (over 3.5 billion people) will be living in areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025. More than half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water borne diseases.
Understanding the current burning needs of providing purified water to the masses, the Government of India has launched "Bharat Nirman Yojana" which considers drinking water as an important program. It is in this context, the role of desalination and water purification becomes very important.
The world's water consumption rate is doubling every 20 years, outpacing the population growth by two times. While on one side, the availability of clean drinking water is on decline on the other hand worldwide availability of fresh water for industrial use and human consumption is limited.
Various industrial and developmental activities in recent times have resulted in increasing the pollution level and deteriorating the water quality. Water shortages and unreliable water quality are considered major obstacles to achieve sustainable development and improvement in the quality of life.
The water-demand in the country is increasing very fast due to progressive rise in demand of water for:
(i) Irrigation,
(ii) Rapid Industrialization,
(iii) Population Growth,
(iv) Improved Standard of Living, etc.
It would not be an exaggeration to mention here that existing water resources are diminishing due to:
(i) Unequal distribution of rain water and occasional drought,
(ii) Excessive exploitation of ground water sources and its insufficient recharge,
(iii) Deterioration of water quality due to the discharge of domestic and industrial effluents without adequate treatment. This is resulting into water stress/scarcity.
The proportion of the population which is urban has now doubled over the last thirty years and is now about 30%. Agriculture now accounts for about 25% of GDP.
According to Wikipedia: The Economy of India is the seventh-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). The country is classified as newly industrialized country, one of the G-20 major economies, a member of BRICS and a developing economy with approximately 7% average growth rate for the last two decades. India's economy became the world's fastest growing major economy from the last quarter of 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China. India has a highly seasonal pattern of rainfall, with 50% of precipitation falling in just 15 days and over 90% of river flows in just four months.
Next to hardness, the presence of iron is probably the most common water problem faced by consumers and water treatment professionals in India and elsewhere. The maximum contaminant levels for iron and manganese in potable water are 0.3 milligrams per litre (mg/l) and 0.05 mg/l, respectively. Iron and manganese in excess of the suggested maximum contaminant levels usually results in discoloured water and staining of sanitary-ware, utensils and clothing--Iron gives a brown or orange colour mark, while Manganese leaves black particles on fixtures and pipe works.
Therefore, quality-water-problem exists nearly in all the parts of our country--it has been estimated that about 70-80% of health problems have their root in unclean water.
In India Micro-biological contamination is a common problem. However, specific regions have some predominantly geogenic based --Iron in north eastern States and arsenic in the eastern part of India.
It is pertinent to mention here that, arsenic contamination is spreading across the Gangetic-plain extending upto Punjab. Fluoride contamination is present in a number of states including western, south east and northern states. Salinity in the ground water is increasing day by day and becoming a significant issue in majority of states due to over-exploitation of ground water in the inland areas and infiltration of seawater in the coastal areas.
Thus, Technological intervention has become a necessity for a reliable "&" sustainable availability of safe drinking water. This is where comes-in the role of water purifiers to improve human hygiene and make our societies a "Better Place for Living".
