State testing lab gets new machine for water quality analysis

To detect pesticide traces in potable water; Samples of tubewells,borewells to be tested in first phase

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, March 12

With the arrival of a machine “gas chromatography mass spectrometer”, the State Water Testing Laboratory, situated in the city, got a boost. The machine will detect traces of pesticide in the water resources.The machine is yet to be installed. The authorities are hopeful that it will be functional in the first week of April.

In the first phase, around 12,000 water resources, including tubewells and borewells of the department, which are supplying drinking water in the state to consumers, will be tested and analysed so that the canal and ground water can be saved from being polluted or contaminated.

In the second phase, the testing facility will be available for private person also, who can get water tested by paying nominal charges, which will be fixed by the government, said Amit Singh, State Chemist at the State Water Testing Laboratory.“Samples across the state will be tested here,” he added.

Amit Singh further stated that the state government had purchased machine and equipment for around Rs 2.5 crore, while the Chandigarh-based company had been assigned to maintain and operate the machine for five-year at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore.

He said water pollution had become a challenge due to industrial activities and also haphazard use of pesticides in the agricultural sector. “To deal with the problem, the government had decided to test the traces of pesticides in drinking water. For it, the state lab has been strengthened with this machine, which can easily detect the traces of pesticides,” said Singh, adding that this step will help in checking pesticide contamination in drinking water and also to ensure pure water.

The state chemist said the government had established water testing labs at all district headquarters. Also, on October 2, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had dedicated a mobile water testing lab to test the samples on site in rural areas. He maintained that around 10 per cent samples failed purity test and were not consumable across the state, for which recommendation were being given to the JEs and SDOs concerned to overcome the issues.