This study was undertaken to demonstrate the efficacy of the water purification technology developed by the scientists of ERL in their bid to provide cost effective  technological answer to the prevailing  situation in drinking water, especially to the under privileged and low income group people. The specific aims and objectives were as follows:

Objectives and Details of the project:
 

1. To undertake field trial of water purification technology development by ERL in the urban slums of Lucknow.
2. To reduce water borne infection / diseases among the slum population by the use of environmentally safe and economical water purification devices.
3. To provide pilot scale data on the use of such innovation for scaling up the technology for mass replication to the deprived class of the society.

Potability of water in slums is an identified need of the country. Creation of Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission reflects the resolve of the Union Govt. to effectively deal with the current situation with a view to provide potable water to Indian population. As well known, drinking water in most of the slum areas is drawn from different diverse sources like wells, municipal taps, and at some places from India Mark II hand pumps. Obviously, the maintenance of water quality in slums is the most challenging  task. As such, the slum population constitute the most vulnerable section to the water borne infections and diseases due to inherent pollutants. The repeated out break of cholera & other gastro epidemics, especially in the spring may be solely attributed to the wide spread contamination of the water bodies. The stupendous task of mobilizing huge financial resources to mitigate the cost involved in reorganizing the haphazard, unplanned population growth & the resultant development of the shelter devoid of basic human necessity further compound the civic problems. Therefore, alternate method have to be tried and explored to provide potable water to the needy slum population. Environmental Research Laboratory, Lucknow, the R&D wing of the Society for the Development of Environmental Sciences, has done brilliant piece of work in evolving a tangible solution to the existing problem of drinking water, especially for the poor & daily wage earners constituting the bulk of the slums. The technology is simple, cost-effective and feasible, as it neither requires electricity nor toxic compounds of iodine. Through, this process the water borne pathogens viz. E. Coli & toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, iron, nickel etc. are immobilised & potable water is made available. The versatility of this technique is equally advantageous to the deprived sections of the society as it does not require high pressure gradient, unlike the available costly water filters in the market. The demonstration of this technology at Planning Commission, GOI, New Delhi has earned laurels. The specifics of the technology have been filled as an Indian Patent vide 402/DEL/92 dt. 8.5.92. The proposed endeavour is to subject this prototype to field conditions apparently to see its user acceptability vis-a-vis field adaptability for large scale application. The water purification technology could be tried in selected slum areas of Lucknow where adequate facility does not exist or which are not currently covered by the municipal corporation. The target group would constitute the conglomerate of all caste, religion, and socio-economic backward families over a period of one year during which series of essential data with respect to water quality, health status, frequency of ailments etc. shall be regularly monitored to arrive at definite conclusion. The pre and post user data from the target slum families shall provide vital information in respect of 4000 families constituting the target group from slum, in the scaling up of the technology vis-a-vis acceptability of the technology as such or with some modifications in accordance with the feed back obtained from such pilot scale study.

Status of the proposed technology: prototype shape

The scientists at the Environmental Research Laboratory, Lucknow, a R&D unit of the society have worked tirelessly over the years to develop a low cost filter technology for drinking water purification, suitable for economically weaker section of the society.
This invention relates  to the development of low cost filter of drinking water purification from micro-organisms and other pollutants.
In ancient times, a conventional method was used with the help of earthen pitchers in series where sand and wooden coal were used as ingredients to remove suspended particles and organic impurities. Since last three to four decades drinking water quality has been deteriorating continuously due to enormous increase in pollution and in a survey conducted by National Drinking Water  Mission, it was found that around 80% of total drinking water sources were found to be contaminated due to pathogenic micro-organisms, especially E. Coil, around 30% of total common water sources were contaminated due to heavy metals, physio-chemical parameters and other organic pollutants, in which around 13% were only due to iron, 3% due to lead and rest were due to other hazardous pollutants which were often termed as regional problems. In past, many kinds of filter were marketed making claims of safe and clean drinking water to the masses but only selected filters could gain commercial acceptability in the market & that too in urban areas only. The slum population is yet to be exposed to such innovations due to financial constraints. Some candle filter were efficient but most of them were generally useful in removal of the suspended particles only and did not withstand the acid test for the satisfactory pathogenic micro-organism and hazardous heavy metals - a dominant problem of India. Those living in slums undoubtedly are extremely poor economically thus, unable to afford such gadgets.

In the slum areas, water for drinking purposes is drawn from different sources like wells, tanks, ponds & India Mark II etc. where the maintenance of water quality is a difficult task. Consequently, the population embarking on these sources of water supply is vulnerable to water borne diseases like Cholera, Typhoid, Dysentery, Gastro-enteritis and other toxicological manifestations etc. In order to overcome this problem and the related issue of drinking water we have developed a low cost water filter in which water collected from any source may be filtered to ensure a satisfactory level of drinking water quality, especially in relation to pathogenic micro-organism and heavy metals. 

The efficiency of this filter for the removal of heavy metal was investigated, considering the large scale contamination of heavy metals in different regions. For this the low and high concentration (1-58 ppm) of spiked samples of untreated water containing heavy metals viz. iron, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium & lead, were passed through the device and the analysis of these metals in un-filtered & filtered water was carried out using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (GBC-901, Australia). The absorption of each metal was recorded in both un-filtered & filtered water and then compared with the respective standards of each metal, separately.

First bacterial disinfection studies were conducted with thermotolerant E. Coil strains isolated on brain-heart infusion broth and cultured at 37⁰C 
for 24 hrs. The bacterial suspension having concentration IX 10⁴
microbes/ml were passed through the filter. The filtrate was examined for coliform colonies with McConkey broth by MPN method. Not even a single colony was found to be present in the filtrate. The filter was tested again with different sources of water like the Gomti river and water from different wells and ponds where there were enormous colonies of E. Coil in the water.

The filter body may be made of plastic (Polyethylene Carbonate) or Stainless Steel having diameter of 5 cm and height of 4 cm which has been tapered at the bottom (2 cm) with a perforated diaphragm (plastic/steel). The perforated diaphragm and top of the filter was sealed with 45 micron plastic mesh.

There may be steel, plastic, rain cloth or earthen containers to hold the filter. Since filter is effective for the removal of pathogenic bacteria from any source of water, it may also be useful for persons who are generally on field duties for a day long period and for whom it is very difficult to get bacteria free drinking water . As on today, there has not been a successful S & T intervention, which is feasible enough to provide a pathogenic bacteria free drinking water to the economic strained population comprising 95% of the slums & rural masses. 

The cost of this device has been worked out to be Rs. 75/- only. As such, this newly developed device shall be most ideal for the urban slums & rural; areas. The per capita expenses on converting the available water as potable using ERL's device has been worked out to be 1.28 paisa or Rs. 0.012 per day assuming the family size of 8 persons consuming 16.5 litres per day. Thus, the purification cost of water using this device has been computed to be 0.62 paisa per litre. 

Methodology & Activity Milestones:

The target group comprising 1000 families drawn from the urban slums of the Lucknow city having inadequate or non-existent civic amenities, especially in  the portability of  water, were distributed this water purification device with in a reasonable time after the commencement of the project. The water quality monitoring inter alia the other relevant parameters associated with the safe or unsafe consumption of water as detailed hitherto was collected at regular intervals to ascertain the feasibility of the technology and the impact of this project on the target group. The following three main parameters were closely evaluated to highlight the impact of this project:

a) Infant mortality rate 
b) Incidence of diarrhoea and dehydration 
c) Incident of amoebiasis and gastro epidemics.

Besides, the quality of water available to the target group was regularly monitored & evaluated over a period of one year. Based on which the pilot study, would emerge with a crucial data for providing a tangible solution to the sage drinking water need of the urban areas and can thus be replicated in other areas as well through out the country.

Status:

The project has successfully been implemented and the users are satisfied with its performance to meet  their drinking water need to a reasonable  level under the prevailing circumstances.