Terafil technology will not only ensure clean drinking water in villages but also turn the rural people into entrepreneurs.
Chakdoha and Chapri, two villages of Ghatshila in East Singhbhum district [of Jharkand state, India], will play host to the pilot project.
The initiative has been taken by the Rural Development Trust under the Art of Living Foundation, Bengaluru. Terafil water filters have been designed by S.K. Kuntia, the head of design and rural technology department at the Institute of Mineral and Material Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar, a wing of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi.
[...] The terafil would cost around Rs 350 to Rs 500. The foundation has planned to rope in the corporate sector to help donate the filters as a part of their corporate social responsibility.
The filters would encourage self-employment, too. The foundation would also arrange for resources to train the villagers and help them turn into entrepreneurs.
[...] The filters are being manufactured and would be distributed across the two villages from March 31 [2009].
Source: The Telegraph, 23 Dec 2008
The Terafil water filter is especially suited for water that is rich in sediments, suspended particles, iron and certain microorganisms, i.e. for areas where water from both surface & ground water sources like dug wells, ponds, tube wells and rivers is used for drinking water.
Terafil (red clay) filtration disc. Photo: IMMT
Terafil is a burnt red clay porous media [...] produced from mixture of red clay (silt clay), river sand and wood saw dust, without using chemicals. The dough of the mixture of these materials is sintered at high temperature in a low cost coal / wood fired furnace to make the terracotta disc porous.
About 99% of turbidity, 90-95% of micro-organisms, 80-95% of soluble iron,
Domestic Terafil filter. Photo: IMMT
colours etc. are effectively removed from the raw water during filtration process through the Terafil. 100% bacteria can be removed when a pinch (0.01 gm) of bleaching powder is added to a liter of filtered water. Rate of filtration is dependent upon turbidity and pressure of raw water over the Terafil.
Terafil filters are available for both domestic use and community-level use (gravity flow and on-line pressure flow models).
Read more technical specifications here (IMMT brochure, May 2008).
In 2007, IMMT had already licensed the technology for making and marketing Terafil discs to four parties in Orissa and had demonstrated the technology in several other states including Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya. Over 50,000 water filters had been distributed. The domestic Terafil filter was used extensively in Orissa in 1999 when the state was severely hit by a cyclone.
Contact: S. Khuntia, Head, Design & Rural Technology, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, P.O. RRL, Bhubaneswar – 751013, India. Tel (off) : 0674 2581635-39, Fax: 0674 2581637, 2581160. Email: khuntias [at] gmail.com, skhuntia [at] immt.res.in
Source: CSIR news, Oct 2007
1 response so far ↓
Debashis Ray // June 29, 2009 at 7:19 am |
This technology has great prospect for use in the Sunderbans of WB as all water sources have been contaminated after cyclone Aila. The trouble is that nobody here seems aware of this technology and are transporting packaged water to the remote villages instead.