Safe & Clean Water Can Be Delivered to 650,000 Villages With This Simple Solution
We all know that water is life. But, do you know that water is also taking lives? Yes, the same water is causing the death of nearly 1.5 million children every year because they are consuming contaminated water. Closer home, a study by NITI Aayog in June 2018 found that nearly 600 million Indians are under extreme water stress and about 200,000 people die every year due to lack of access to clean potable water. Data by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation reveals that under-served rural areas, which is about 6,50,000 villages, depend on groundwater for 85 percent of their needs. And this groundwater is usually contaminated with pollutants and microbes that can cause waterborne diseases.
To overcome this crisis, 59-year old Anjan Mukherjee, a former marine chief engineer, created a device to turn contaminated water into safe water. Anjan, who likes to play with machines and considers science as his passion, says he stumbled upon the technology which he thought could solve the world’s drinking water problem, and that translated into a company. Along with his wife Piyul Mukherjee, he started Taraltec Solutions in 2017 in Mumbai.
Anjan says, the ‘Taraltec Disinfection Reactor’ is a ‘fit and forget’ technology. The palm-sized reactor kills microbes in borewell hand pump water and motorised water lines and eliminates waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid. Anjan clarifies that it is not a filter, but a technology, which uses a few basic principles of physics.
The co-founder claims that the reactor, priced for less than Rs 7,500, does not require any electricity, fuel, smartphone, motor, filter, maintenance, operational cost, or technician and yet make water safe.
Anjan’s innovation has rewarded Taraltec a granted patent and four pending-patents, which includes the Taraltec Disinfection Reactor.
How does Taraltec reactor work?
Explaining the basic science behind it, Anjan says the device uses the idea that microbes in the water can be killed when there is a huge pressure. “We just added more physics tricks to Taraltec device,” he said.
The technology is inspired by bio-mimicry, adds Anjan. The Taraltec device converts the kinetic energy of the fluid into millions of targeted micro-bubbles, each acting as a localised reactor. This is packed with extreme heat, pressure and turbulence that release intense energy packets during the collapse of the bubbles. The resultant shock waves physically kill microbes and deliver the water to those drawing it up, almost 99 percent safer than earlier, says Anjan.
Surviving by word of mouth and major collaborations with big corporations, the company has thus far sold several hundreds of units impacting directly the lives of more than two lakh of people already. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) arms of major Indian corporations like Lupin, Godrej, Reliance, Tata Trust, Nalanda Foundation, Water Aid and Jubilant have teamed up with the startup to deploy the reactors in various parts of rural India. This process is on the verge of takeoff.
The Taraltec Disinfection Reactor is a zero maintenance and simple device that requires little technical skill to be installed in your hand pump or borewell and can be done by the local fitter without any specialized tools or training.
Ketto & the Environment
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