Even as water purifier makers hope for a reversal in the ban on products using reverse osmosis (RO), Kent RO has launched a ‘zero water-wastage’ purifier.
The new product pumps non-purified portion back to the overhead water tank, but will not waste water, unlike the traditional ones.
This is the first such product in the Indian market. Water shortage and wastage has been a major cause of concern in the country especially in rain-deficient parts such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Mahesh Gupta, Chairman Kent RO Systems said that they simply modified the existing product. He added that consumers can replace their existing Kent RO for the new ones.
“Individuals will only have to pay Rs 1,500 for the new pipe to be connected to the overhead tank. The technology will enable us to convert all Kent ROs to no-waste purifiers,” he added.
In the new product, water recovery (amount of water converted to purified water) has been enhanced to 50 percent from the earlier 25 percent. The remaining water goes back to the water source in the building.
Why RO ban?
In May 2019, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to frame rules for the use of RO filters and banned the use of RO purifiers in locations where total dissolved solids (TDS) was low.
According to NGT, RO purifiers lead to the wastage of almost 70-80 percent water during the purification process. It asked RO manufacturers to ensure recovery of about 75 percent of the water.
TDS refer to the salt, minerals and other solids present in water. RO purification is used to purify the water.
However in early November, NGT found that its order was still not being implemented. Following this, the Water Quality India Association moved the Supreme Court to seek a stay on the RO ban. However, the apex court refused to give a stay.
NGT has given time till December 31 to MoEF to frame relevant rules. At present, the RO industry consists of Rs 1,000 crore household market and about Rs 1,500 crore of commercial businesses.
The Kent RO shift
The conventional RO water purifiers have a recovery rate of 4:1, that is four glasses of water will give one glass of pure water. But, the new technology pf Kent RO has boosted recovery rate to 50 percent, i.e. 4:2, which implies that four glasses of water will produce two glasses of drinkable water.
The remaining two glasses will further be recycled and filtered to make it drinkable. Gupta said that this is achieved through patented processes which involve advanced filtration procedure as well as use of most efficient RO membranes.
Going forward, he added that the company will also be open to sharing this technology with other players in the market so that less water is wasted and consumers are able to get good quality drinking water.
A recent report by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) based on samples tests conducted on tap water of 21 cities has cities alarming test findings. Among cities, 15 out of 21 were unsuccessful at meeting one or more safety parameter.
Moreover, cities such as Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bengaluru, Jammu, Lucknow, Chennai and Dehradun ranked among the cities where the tap water quality is below average.
The national capital too where samples were taken from 11 different locations failed to meet the requirements on a maximum of 19 parameters.
Hence RO water purifiers have taken a front seat and demand is growing. There are about 10 million users of RO water purifiers in India.
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