Thursday Seminar on "Low Cost Water Purification Solutions for Indian Households"
Date: 11 May, 2017
Time: 15:30 - 16:30
Venue: Main Building Lecture Room - G1
Coordinator: Prof. Jyotsna Vijapurkar
Speaker: Dilshad Ahmad, Tata Research, Development & Design Centre,
Abstract:
Safe drinking water is one of the fundamental needs of every individual but it is not readily available to a large portion of the population in India. As a result people are forced to consume contaminated water available to them. These contaminated water poses health risks from
waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and typhoid. In addition, ground water contains inorganic contaminants such as arsenic and fluoride which affects millions of poor people across the country. Most villages in India do not have access to treated piped water. In such places point-of-use interventions are the only viable solution to combat waterborne ailments. However, most purifiers available in the Indian market are not affordable to the affected population. Thus, there is a need for low-cost standalone interventions capable of removing microbial and heavy metal contaminants from drinking water. In the talk we shall present our findings on the ground realities and portfolio of water purification solutions we have developed for removal of microbial as
well as inorganic contaminants such as arsenic and fluoride from drinking water. These inexpensive solutions are designed to be amenable for deployment in low-income rural as well as urban households and provide purification which conforms to international standards while
requiring negligible intervention from the end user.
About the speaker:
Dilshad Ahmad has been working on development of affordable drinking water solutions for Indian households. He was one of the key inventors of Tata SwachTM (one of the most affordable water purifiers in India). He has also worked on development of low cost purification solution for fluoride and arsenic. He has developed a number of water purification devices for removal of microbiological contaminants such as bacteria and viruses and chemical contaminants such as arsenic and fluoride from drinking water. He has a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru with Gold Medal, and B Tech from IIT Kanpur. He has more than 18 patents and 6 publications to his name.