TARA Environment Monitoring Facility (TEMF)

 

Imagine a water filter that could take unsafe water and transform it into clean drinking water for hundreds of people. Imagine that the filter returned the value of its initial cost many times over, especially through the positive effect it had on peoples’ lives. And, finally imagine, all of this in a developing nation. We at Development Alternatives (DA) imagined this scenario and developed it at the TARA Environment Monitoring Facility (TEMF), carrying out repeated field and laboratory experiments to produce various tools and techniques to purify water, making it potable.

Jal-TARA Water-testing Kits

Anybody and everybody can use Jal-TARA water testing kits because they are provided with a self-explanatory pictorial manual. These kits are lightweight and sturdy, and can be easily transported for fieldwork. We offer two standard kits. One kit tests 11 essential parameters, including biological, chemical and physical parameters of drinking water, while the other kit tests both surface and drinking water, which can assess 14 parameters. The various parameters tested by the standard kit are pH, temperature, turbidity, fluoride, ammonia, nitrate, hardness, dissolved oxygen, phosphorous, chloride, residual chlorine, iron, and biological contamination. Each kit includes gloves, beakers, trays, test tubes, syringes, reagents, and colour comparison charts, along with a detailed pictorial manual. There is also the option to purchase the English language training video for use of the kits.

TEMF also offers customised kits on demand. These kits can test the levels of pH and fluoride, pH and nitrate, pH and iron, pH and residual chlorine, hardness, dissolved oxygen and total dissolved solids (TDS) meters. An arsenic testing kit is also available. Each kit contains all the necessary equipment and accessories. Refills are also available for all our kits. Thousands of such kits have been supplied to various departments across the globe. The state governments of Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar have recently put these kits to use under the National Rural Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Programme, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

Jal-TARA Aqua Check Testing Vials

The Jal-TARA Aqua Check vial is a small bottle that proves the presence of bacteria that cause diarrhoea, dysentery and gastroenteritis. In this simple to use kit, just open a vial, fill it with water up to the mark, and let it sit. Within 48 hours, the water will turn black in the presence of bacteria. A set of 10 vials is a part of the standard kit.

Our water-testing kits, validated by the Shriram Institute of Industrial Research (SIIR) and supported by UNICEF in 2005, are used extensively in schools, Public Health Engineering Departments, world bodies like the UNICEF as also in developing countries like Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Africa. The licensing for our TARA Aqua-Check vials has been given by the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), Delhi and the technology is based on the DRDE (Gwalior) H2S strip method.

Jal-TARA Water Filter

The Jal-TARA water filter uses slow sand filtration to treat water contaminated with harmful bacteria and sediments. The unclean water trickles down through various layers of sand, and safe drinking water settles at the base of the filter. The filter is customised in a 1000-litre water tank and processes between 2500 to 3000 litres of drinking water every day, which is enough to meet the needs of 100-120 households. This is a highly effective way of providing safe drinking water, eliminating 99.99% of the bacteria, while also protecting people from illnesses such as typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhoea. One filter will last for around 15 years, and needs cleaning only once a year. A total of 48 such filters have been installed in various schools, offices and villages in India.

There are several benefits of this testing strategy:

The filter is simple to install and use
It requires low maintenance
It does not need any chemicals or electricity to run
It assures continuous supply of safe drinking water

JAL-TARA Arsenic Purification System

Scientists and analysts at DA have developed the Jal-TARA Arsenic purification system, an innovative drinking water treatment device for removing arsenic, pathogens, iron, turbidity and other contaminants in drinking water. The filtration mechanism is based on slow sand filtration and iron hydroxide adsorption principles. Studies have showed that the percentage removal of arsenic from water is in the range of 85-95%, along with other parameters. Percentage removal also varies in field conditions.

Fluoride Removal Filter

The fluoride removal filter unit essentially consists of an upper chamber which holds the raw or untreated water, through which water comes in contact with a bed of Activated Alumina (AA) granules and passes through at a slow rate through a small orifice at the bottom of the upper chamber. To protect the AA bed every time water is poured into the chamber, a perforated baffle plate is placed over the layer of AA.

Jal-TARA Household Water Filter

At the household level, the Jal-TARA water filter is a version of slow sand water filter specifically designed for removing disease-causing organisms. The filters can be built on a smaller scale at a lower cost even in remote areas. The technology has been introduced in more than 30 countries and is widely used by various agencies.

TEMF offers a range of quality products and services for environmental quality monitoring and management. It is our belief that effective management can only come from effective monitoring, because it allows for a precise situation analysis, which can then lead to appropriate management solutions. q

M.Manoj Kumar
mkumar@devalt.org

 

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