Matt Stevenson, Delagua's Business development manager in India visited our Sites for testing water with Delagua's mobile field testing kit. He tested various contaminants in the water, which we serve to the rural people. He said " Your method seems really promising! " and he also expressed his interest to work with us in the future.
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Recently one community filter has been installed in village Haldi of Ballia district with the help of Tagore SenGupta Foundation (U.S.A), Technology with a Human face and Rite Water and is being run & maintained by Village committee called Peya Jal Samiti. It has capacity to supply arsenic free water to 200 families & at present about 120 families are taking water from this plant. Each family is paying a nominal charge of one hundred Rs. Per month as per decision of the committee. It is running successfully and is self sustainable. Michael Scott German AKA Mike, who was a Fulbright Researcher in India spent 14 months for his Fulbright Program and studied about Arsenic and Fluoride in India. And he has worked with THF, and given a Momentum to our organization for achieving some distant goals. He has also represented our Organization to several national events. On 16th February, he left India to meet his parents in USA. Wish you good Luck for your Future Endeavours, we know you'll be in Constant touch with THF. Richard Lyman, from Los Angeles who came on behalf of the International organization, "Chemists without Borders" to see our Arsenic removal Plants in Ashoknagar, North 24 Parganas. He visited 3 of our plants, and impressed of the numbers of Consumers, to whom we are serving Arsenic and Iron free water. He was also amazed to see the rural life of Bengal. Topography and Demography:- Maldah, a district of West Bengal, India, is located near the Bangladesh and Bihar borders. And there is continuous influx of the migrants resulting in explosion of population. It has 15 Blocks, 147 Gram Panchayats with population of 3,988,845 of which male and female were 2,051,541 and 1,937,304 respectively. Arsenic Situation in Maldah:- Out of 15 blocks, 8 Blocks are affected by Arsenic Contamination in Ground water. Places affected by Arsenic are Kaliachak I, II & III, Englishbazar, Manikchak, Maldah (Old), Ratua I, Ratua II, Chachal I & II, Bamangola, Gazole, Harishchandrapur I & II. STHF Visit:- We went to Maldah for finding the possibilities of STHF Involvement. We first went to few NGO labs and talked with the officials there and found out the exact points of high Arsenic contamination. We got few photo copies of Arsenic testing reports, and observed their Arsenic testing procedure, i.e Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. We found a NGO, which has done some Arsenic related work previously with UNICEF by providing Arsenic removal Filters to Villages. Now they only do arsenic testing and provide the results to Government. We also went to two villages which is highly affected by arsenic, as reported.
Next we went to meet Mr. Ritam Bhattacharya, Executive Engineer of PHED arsenic in Malda. He said, they are progressing by doing river water treatments and supplying water through Time-taps to every Arsenic affected villages. Still there are few pockets where river-water supply is difficult, so they want to do some Arsenic & Iron Removal plants, for that they’ll be inviting tenders.
Another Arsenic Removal plant or HAIX SARSAC is being installed in Ramnagar Village, Maner Block, Patna, Bihar in association with A.N. College, Patna. In this particular location, no electricity is available and a 200 feet deep hand-pump to withdraw groundwater is the only source of potable water for about 50 families. However, the groundwater was contaminated with high levels of arsenic and there were symptoms of arsenic related health crisis amongst villagers. One hand-pump attached SARSAC (Sustainable Arsenic Removal System in Affected Community) unit was installed and the villagers promptly adapted to its day to day operation. Figure shows the photograph of the manually operated plant and arsenic effluent history for a period of nearly two years. Approximately 50 liters of HAIX were used in the fixed-bed column. Note that arsenic in the treated water was consistently well below 50 μg/l (i.e., then the maximum contaminant level or MCL in India) and close to 10 μg/l, the maximum permissible limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Besides removing arsenic from the raw water, it’s critical that the water be aesthetically
pleasing enough for people to consume. To reach aesthetic and drinking water standards, the iron present in the water must be removed. Iron removal to below WHO standards (0.3 mg/L Fe) is achieved through simple aeration and sand filtration Read a recent Telegraph article by Dr. Arup SenGupta about the Myths & Facts around arsenic treatment strategies. Are deep tube wells safe? Do people get safe water through piped water supplies? Is arsenic treatment expensive or difficult? etc. As part of the Gangetic Plain, Nepal has many regions impacted by natural arsenic contamination of groundwater. STHF has recently gotten involved in providing HAIX treatment facilities in Nepal along with the support of Tagore-SenGupta Foundation (USA) and several other organizations. First tests confirm successful treatment. Click HERE for the test report. |