Staying liquid

Dodgy water is one of the greatest problems faced by Indian homes.

What's the greatest problem that India faces? Is it rural poverty or overpopulation or illiteracy? Or, it is the lack of good infrastructure like roads and telephones and the perennial power shortages?

There are some experts who believe these are all dwarfed by the water crisis is being felt from one end of the sub-continent to the other.

India faces a water crisis of unimaginable proportions "" both in the villages and in urban India. In the big cities like Delhi municipal water provides barely a fraction of the population's needs. And almost every household depends heavily on borewell water.

Is borewell water safe? The answer is that it isn't treated like municipal water so it's essential to take precautions. So, anyone who uses borewell water needs a water purifier of some sort.

The domestic water purification industry is worth around Rs 600 crore of which over 60 per cent is the unorganised market. Water filters are available at every kitchenware or grocery store. However, if you are only using a filter, it is advisable to first boil the water and then filter it.

You can of course, buy more sophisticated products which work on different technologies such as the ultra violet or UV technology, ultra filtration membrane technology or reverse osmosis.

Which of these should you pick? That depends on the quality of the water and the types of impurities in it. There are three main kinds of impurities "" suspended particles, microbiological impurities (which include bacteria, viruses and pyrogens), and excess dissolved salts.

In most parts of the country making water bacteria-free is most important and so UV technology-based products such as Eureka Forbes AquaGuard are extremely popular.

AquaGuard is available in three variants "" Compact Cartridge, i-Nova and Hi-flo priced at Rs 6,590, Rs 7,690 and Rs 8,490 respectively.

While the Compact Cartridge only dispenses one litre of water per minute, the i-Nova dispenses two litres and the Hi-flo dispenses three litres. Hi-flo is more suitable for schools, offices and other commercial establishments.

Ion Exchange's ZeroB range of products also include products based on UV technology. It's Resiline is a wall mounted unit which has a three-stage purification system. The product comes with a digital meter which indicates the capacity in months and litres and it has a warning system that tells you when it is time to replace the cartridge.

Then there is Mumbai-based Ace Hygiene Products which sells Alfa Water Purifiers. The company makes three models "" standard, special version and deluxe. The standard model is for Rs 6,296 and it has an output of two litres per minute.

The special version is priced at Rs 6,750 and comes with a microprocessor that keeps track of the life of the components that constitute the filtration unit like the carbon, UV lamp etc.

Normally, these components have a life of 6,500 working hours after which they need to be replaced. The microprocessor warns the consumer 100 hours before a component needs to be changed.

The deluxe version is priced at Rs 7,592 and has all the above facilities apart from also having vending options. So a consumer can programme the water flow as per the size of the container "" like glass, bottle or free flow.

UV technology-based products are effective where the water quality is reasonably good. This is because UV rays passing through water render bacteria and viruses inert, but do not remove them.

Moreover, UV rays do not change the composition of the water, the excess dissolved salts remain in your drinking water, as before.

So if the water in your area is very salty and has high sedimentation (total dissolved solid levels of more than 700), then you need to go in for a reverse osmosis product. Unlike UV-based water purifiers, reverse osmosis is an expensive proposition and costs slightly over Rs 15,000.

Ion Exchange's Pristine and Eureka Forbes' Reviva are counter-top reverse osmosis units which remove suspended particles, bacteria, viruses, harmful minerals, colour and odour from water. They claim to reduce the total dissolved solids (TDS) content by nearly 90 per cent. And they have a storage capacity of 8 litres. Reviva costs Rs 15,500.

Of course, all these products work on electricity and so in case of areas where power failure takes place for long hours, these products may not be very effective.

A simple yet effective water purifier solution is Ion Exchange's ZeroB Suraksha which is an on tap purifier. It can be fixed on to any tap. It has a built-in indicator which shows when the unit's life is over. One unit provides around 7,500 litres of safe drinking water. The product is available at kitchenware stores and also at chemists. It costs Rs 300.

Besides the established companies, there are a large number of local players. However, most of them do not provide any after sales service and don't have a proper dealer network in place.

Additional reporting: Arti Sharma