CSIR-CSIO transfers technology to check water pollutants

In India, more than 100 million people live in areas of poor water quality. With increasing industrialization and unregulated anthropogenic activities, several states in India- Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, etc., are worst hit with high level of different chemical pollutants such as arsenic, nitrate, fluoride, chromium, iron, etc.

In this direction Chandigarh - based group of researchers at Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed a portable "integrated optical system" for in field detection of three major water pollutants including arsenic, nitrate and fluoride in a wide detection window covering their permissible limit. These pollutants are popularly known to cause fluorosis (dental, skeletal and non-skeletal), arsenosis, cancer and blue-baby syndrome on consumption of contaminated water beyond permissible limit. The system can be deployed in varied urban, rural and industrial settings for detection/ monitoring of these chemical pollutants in ground water, waste water, river water, industrial effluents etc.

Availability of such system would reduce dependence on lab based expensive equipment used by state and private testing labs for monitoring of these pollutants before consumption and identifying its source of origin so as to facilitate government bodies for strict regulation and remedial actions said Dr. Babankumar, Project Leader and Principal scientist at CSIO. He also added that the developed technology can be an integral part of Smart City initiative. Other team of researchers involved are: Ms Sudeshna Bagchi, Dr Pooja D., Dr Neelam, Dr Nayak, Dr VD Shivling, Mr Manish and Ashwani Kumar. For further commercial exploitation, the technology has been transferred to M/s Ambtek Innovations Pvt. Ltd., Ambala for undertaking market driven changes and complete manufacturing of engineering model along with user level trials.