Meet The Pure Waterman of India Mr Mahesh Gupta founder of Kent RO

Availability of safe drinking water in the country has become a major cause of concern. The recent reports of parliamentary committee have also agreed that 70% of people don’t have access to drinking water. The report further states 98 districts of 13 states are worse affected with occurrence of high arsenic in drinking water.  More than 1 lakh death has been reported due to high content of arsenic in drinking water.  Keeping in mind the above facts we have spoken to Mr Mahesh Gupta “ Pure Waterman Of India” and the inventor of world’s first mineral RO technology purifiers. Mr Gupta led mineral RO technology  is suitable for removing all type of impurities in the water whether you are consuming water from river, bore well, tap water or from any other source. Mr Gupta himself is an IITian and has done immense research before introducing this water purification technology to the country. The using an appropriate water purifier at home not only lessen your expenditure on regular health but also keep your immune system strong in rainy season.

What is the need of water purifiers if we are getting treated water in our homes from various corporation or other authorities.

The water we consume in our homes is supplied by iron pipes. These pipes are most of the times are decade old and full of rust. When, the water travels through these pipes to our homes, rust is mixed with water in the form of dissolved impurities. Second, we store this water in over head tanks on roof tops. These tanks are not cleaned for months and become a breeding ground for bacteria. Third, the water pipes in our country are run parallel to sewage pipes and since these are underground so there is no mechanism to check the leakage and more often the sewage water mixes with drinking water. Hence, an effective water purifier is must to have safe and clean drinking water.

Lot of people says RO are required only where the water is hard especially ground water and sea water. What do you suggest?

Today, the quality of drinking water is so poor even in the locations, where the source of drinking water is rivers and ponds. The recent report by Parliamentary committee on drinking water has stated that nearly 2/3 of sewage generated in urban areas across the country goes into the rivers untreated leaving the water bodies severely polluted. Such contaminated water is pumped by municipalities as drinking water which may contain highly undesired chemical contents as dissolved impurities. Hence if you think you are consuming river water and do not require water purifiers so it is a mistake. The dissolved impurities in the water are everywhere

We are hearing about the dissolved impurities in the water. What are these dissolve impurities

The water we consume in our homes has multiple minerals. There are some harmful content which comes along with these mineral like arsenic, lead, rust, cyst. These are dissolved impurities. You can’t see them not even with microscope. These impurities are highly dangerous to human being. For example arsenic, it is a silent killer. The high content of arsenic has effected over 78 lakhs people in India in one or other form.

What is arsenic and What are the causes of arsenic? 

The occurrence of arsenic is mainly due to two reasons:  natural and anthropogenic.  Arsenic is widely distributed in nature and principally occurs in the form of inorganic or organic compounds.  Inorganic compounds consist of arsenite, the most toxic form and arsenate the less toxic form.  The main ores of Arsenic are arsenopyrite, arpiment, realgar and arsenopalledenite. It is present in nature as iron arsenate, iron sulphate and in calcareous soil as calcareous arsenolite.  In flood deposits, it is found as arsenite.  The main anthropogenic sources are industrial waste, phosphate, fertilizers, coal, oil, cement, mine tailing, smelting, ore processing, metal extraction, metal purification, chemicals, glass, leather, textiles, alkali, petroleum refineries, acid mines, alloys, pigments, insecticides, herbicides and catalysts.

Organic arsenic abundantly found in sea food, it’s not harmful and Inorganic arsenic that is found in ground water is harmful to health because it’s stored in the body, thus adversely affecting multiple organ systems and form many diseases.

Which are the worst affected areas with arsenic?

The problem of arsenic contamination in ground water from the vast tract of alluvial aquifers in Bengal, Bihar and UP is known to have affected a population of about 50 million in different districts of India and an equal number in Bangladesh. About 63 lakh people in West Bengal State live in the arsenic belt; 69 blocks are arsenic-affected, while two are affected by fluoride. Arsenic in ground water have been reported in a range (0.05-3.2) mg/l in shallow aquifers from 61 block in 8 districts of West Bengal namely Malda, Mushirbad, Nadia, North and South 24 Pargana, Bardhaman, Howrah, and Hugli.

According to a technical report, 'arsenic toxicity in ground water of Uttar Pradesh', harmful concentration of arsenic in ground water, exceeding the Bureau of Indian Standards permissible limit (of 0.01 mg/litre), is spread across 31 districts of the state. The BIS standards are also in sync with the guidelines laid down by the World Health Organisation vis-a-vis arsenic contamination. Testing of water samples from all over UP was done at the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research. 

The 20 districts which figure in the severely toxic zones (above 0.05mg/litre), where arsenic presence has been found to be more than five times of allowed limit, are Ballia, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Bahraich, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Siddharthanagar, Basti, Chandauli, Unnao, Moradabad, Sant Kabir Nagar, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Gonda, Bijnor, Mirzapur, Shahjahanpur, Balrampur, Meerut, and Rae Bareli. 

Three districts which fall in highly toxic (arsenic presence from 0.04mg/litre to 0.05mg/litre) category are Faizabad, Kanpur Nagar and Sitapur. 

How do we get to know that there are dissolved impurities in our water and especially about arsenic, how we can find out the higher content of arsenic in drinking water? 

The water we are drinking in our homes has multiple impurities depending upon the season, source of water. Some time people compliant of stone, cramps, frequent stomach ache infections etc these are also some symptoms consuming contaminated water. . However, after effect of consuming drinking water with the dangerous and toxic elements might appear on later stages. like Arsenic is 60 times more toxic than arsenate, Long term exposure to arsenic in drinking water is casually related to increased risks of cancer in the skin, lung, bladder and kidney, as well as other skin change such as hyperkeratosis and pigmentation change increased risks of lung and bladder cancer of arsenic associated skin lesion have been reported to be associated with ingestion of drinking water at concentration. While arsenic levels may fluctuate over time, what is most significant from the standpoint of cancer risk is long-term exposure

What are the prevailing water standards in India? What should be an ideal potable drinking water?

Drinking water in India is to be used meeting BIS Specification No. IS: 10500.  Since this specification does not require any minimum calcium or magnesium or TDS content, one cannot force RO purified water to have calcium, magnesium or mineral content. Further it has been proved that no other country in the world is prescribing and they are not essential. There is no requirement of minimum mineral content in drinking water as per prevailing standards but Kent’s observation is that small minimum mineral content in water say 25 to 50 mg/liter makes water non aggressive and sweet in taste. Further it provides natural minerals in water which can only be beneficial. Hence Kent RO purifiers are not only based on RO technology but are multi purification process like RO combined with UV and UF as well as TDS controller to retain essential natural mineral content in water.  Kent’s  RO water purifiers therefore retain essential natural minerals in purified water.

What about those who are getting river water supply like we are getting here in cities like Kanpur, Lucknow etc.

Rivers have become the most polluted water resource due to mass industrialization and lack of sewage disposal. The sewage is going directly to rivers and making them worst polluted water.  If we take Ganges more than 2/3 of sewage generated in 118 towns on the bank of Ganges gets discharged in the river untreated collectively they generate 3636 MLT  sewage per day. Though Clean Ganga Plan has got 20000 crore but the fate of other rivers are uncertain

It is said that boiling is the easy and most cost effective solution. Even doctors also recommend this from years. So what is difference between boiled water and a RO UV treated water

 There is no doubt boiling is the most common and prevalent practice for treating drinking water. But boiling of water to a certain temperature can kill bacteria in the water and it does not remove the solid dissolved contents which are even more harmful. Like arsenic which causes cancer. In an RO +UV combination, the UV is work like boiling and RO is for removing the dissolved impurities and in some technologies there is TDS controller which retail the necessary minerals in the water.