Sensitise people against using ROs: PPCB to staff

CHANDIGARH: Based on feedback from 10 reports against the common facility of reverse osmosis in our homes, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has advised to shun its usage except in places where the level of total dissolved solids is above 750 mg per litre.

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 18

Based on feedback from 10 reports against the common facility of reverse osmosis in our homes, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has advised to shun its usage except in places where the level of total dissolved solids is above 750 mg per litre.

The PPCB has directed all its Chief Environmental Engineers to educate people on discontinuing the general usage of ROs for drinking purpose. The areas identified as best suited for the facility in Punjab include parts of Fazilka, Muktsar, Pathankot and Patti in Tarn Taran. The area-specific details for TDS levels could be accessed at bhttp://indiawater.nic.in, a communication to the engineers said.

The ROs were vivaciously promoted by the Akali Dal government during its 2007-12 tenure. The reports opining against its usage were prepared following studies by PGIMER (Chandigarh), Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital (Faridkot), Government College (Patiala), Punjab Agricultural University (Ludhiana), Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU-Amritsar), Panjab University (Chandigarh), Department of Water Supplies and Sanitation and Irrigation and Power Research Institute and Punjabi University (Patiala).

Kahan Singh Pannu, PPCB Chairman, said minerals that were essential for human body, including calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, were removed during the RO process. These minerals are vital to fight hypertension, cardio-vascular handicaps and diabetes. One of the reports said RO water was acidic in nature and could lead to acidosis, an underlying cause for several degenerative diseases.

Experts have suggested that ultraviolet, carbon candle and chlorination processes were better processes instead. The report by GNDU said “there was no need to install ROs where the TDS level was less than 500 mg per litre”.

Where it is advised

ROs should be installed only in places where water has high content of heavy metals and TDS level is above 750 mg/litre
TDS is the measure of combined content of inorganic and organic substances contained in a liquid in molecular form
An RO unit delivering about 10 litres of treated water per day may reject as waste about three to seven times the filtered water