Provision of safe drinking water is one of the key drivers in our technological pursuits. A number of villages are suffering from a variety of water quality problems due to excess salinity, iron, arsenic, fluoride, nitrate and microbial contamination. Several national laboratories are working on desalination and other water purification technologies. Desalination technologies based on RO or thermal processes can be set up in remote areas depending on the local environment. For places like Lakshadweep islands, barge mounted seawater desalination plants would be more suited in view of the space constraints. Point of use devices provide safe drinking water directly. BARC know-how based on domestic water purifier has been found to be one of the affordable, convenient and safe devices to ensure microbiologically safe water. Devices with higher capacities based on ultrafiltration membrane can be used for community water purification.
