Kalagodu Ratnakar, president of the zilla panchayat, has said that the possibility of adopting ultra-filtration membrane technology (UFMT) for purifying drinking water in rural areas of the district would be explored.
The zilla panchayat has set up a UFMT unit to purify drinking water at Siddarahalli in the taluk. S
Speaking to presspersons in the village after visiting the unit, he said, sand filtration and reverse osmosis water purification technologies had proved non-viable for villages in Malnad region.
In the wake of this, it had been decided to purify the water through UFMT on an experimental basis at Siddarahalli. The experiment had yielded positive result, he said. As many rivers pass through the district, it was possible to end drinking water scarcity problem that arise in rural areas during every summer by making optimum utilisation of river water through multi-village water supply schemes, he said.
M.B. Harish, Assistant Executive Engineer of the Department of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, said that in UFMT, water purification would take places with gravitation pull. As a result, the expenditure incurred by gram panchayats on electricity for water purification could be saved. The purification of water under UFMT takes place in three phases. In these three phases, turbidity, suspended solids and harmful micro-organisms in the water would be removed, he said. A sum of Rs. 3 lakh was spent on setting up the UFMT unit at Siddarahalli, which had the capacity to purify 2,000 litres of water every hour. The cost incurred on purifying a litre of water under this method would be three paise, he said.
Sunil Dhole, director of Technorbital, a firm that produces UFMT unit and member of zilla panchayat Krishne Gowda were present.
