CHENNAI: On World Water Day, the State should rethink the use of reverse osmosis (RO) purification, said Municipal Administration and Water Supply Secretary K Phanindra Reddy.
Speaking at the water conclave organised by the New Indian Express on Wednesday, he said that every litre of water produced by RO wasted about 1.5 litre. “Reduced utility of packaged drinking water (which uses RO technology for manufacture) is a step towards sustainable water management,” said Reddy.
Moving forward in this direction, Reddy said that he did not serve bottled water in his meetings anymore. The Greater Chennai Corporation has followed suit. “The water supplied by Chennai Metro Water is already of drinking quality and may only need to boiled before consumption.
There is no need for an RO system to purify this water again,” he told Express on the sidelines of the event, adding that RO purification was required only in cases where the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is more than 500 mg/l.
While he advocates a change in drinking water purification from RO method to ultra filtration, projects are also in the pipeline for sewage treatment.