Bhubaneswar, Oct. 19: Union science technology and earth sciences minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today said increased use of terafil water filters could save many lives in the rural areas of Orissa.
Scientists of the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) have developed terafil, based on low-cost water purification technology. Already adopted by the Union ministry of rural development under Bharat Nirman and Jalmani programmes, terafil water-filtration plants with food grade plastic containers are being widely disseminated in 13 states.
Calling for research and development activity with a social touch for the national laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the minister, however, observed that the state governments concerned should also play a pro-active role to use the technology.
“Availability of safe drinking water is a serious problem in rural India and especially in Orissa, where many people die because of water-borne diseases. The state government should make it mandatory to use the low-cost technology in every household,” he said.
IMMT sources said states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have evinced interest in adopting the technology and the city-based laboratory has transferred the technology to 153 manufacturers so far across the nation to facilitate mass production of terafil water filters.
The IMMT scientists have also completed the design and development of community terafil filters with capacity of 3,000 to 1 lakh litres a day. However, the technology transfer part has been subsidised and it now costs Rs 5,000, while earlier it used to cost nearly Rs 60,000. As the production of containers is linked to industries, the IMMT is more interested in transferring the low-cost technology to as many manufacturing units as possible. During the last floods in the state, more than 1,000 terafil filters fitted with food grade containers were sent to different flood-hit pockets of Kendrapara, Balasore and Bhadrak by the IMMT. The Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology had manufactured the containers.
After a brief to the plasma laboratory on the IMMT campus, Deshmukh said production of steel without the use of coal would be an innovation as it would reduce emission of carbon compounds and help reduce pollution. Developed to a larger potential, this “green technology for steel making” can also help conserve coal as various industries consume the coal reserves. The plasma laboratory is developing a new method to produce iron without the use of coal as is usually done in blast furnace. The heating of the ore here is being done by hydrogen-based plasma.
Hinting at the new approach of the CSIR to have various courses for students, along with carrying out research work in all its laboratories, the Union minister said the scheduled tribes should be given due chance to pursue scientific careers.
IMMT director Prof. B.K. Mishra said already the institute had started a process to introduce various technologies developed by various CSIR laboratories to set up model villages in the backward Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi region.
