Getting hands on: testing drinking water in schools

INTRODUCTION

Our insatiable quest for progress and development has no doubt caused wide scale pollution of our water resources. Most drinking water contamination can be attributed to human activities. In order to control contamination, we need to strike a balance between regulating the source, determining the 'safe' levels, and choosing the best treatment. One of the most effective ways of reducing contaminants in drinking water is by controlling it at the source. However, as consumers, it's important for us to be aware about the source of our drinking water, its contamination and the best possible treatment.

Having adequate knowledge on the quality of water we consume is important. But, have you ever wondered how you can monitor the quality of drinking water all by yourself? Well, there is a simple drinking water testing kit developed byTERI that you can use. Schools, colleges and even the general public can test the quality of water using TERI’s potable water quality testing kit designed to conduct water quality testing at the household level.

The kit comes with a manual and can test 11 physiochemical and bacteriological parameters viz. pH, colour, odour, fluorides, total Hardness, chlorides, iron, nitrate, alkalinity, residual chlorine, and bacteriological contamination (Refer the table). The chemicals and apparatus required for carrying out the tests is provided in the kit as well. The kit has been used by several schools, rural communities, and NGOs and has been found to be extremely useful.

A project titled 'Water and Sanitation Education in Mangalore, Karnataka' - a joint initiative of BASF, UN-Habitat and TERI, aimed to foster water, sanitation and hygiene education in schools and to improve water quality monitoring in Mangalore city benefiting at least 5,000 students from 25 schools in Mangalore. As part of the Water Education project, students' training workshops were organized for the students and teachers of all the project schools on testing 11 physiochemical and biological parameters of drinking water using TERI's potable water quality testing kit. During the training programme, students tested the quality of the drinking water they carried in their water bottles. The trainings motivated and taught students to test the quality of the drinking water supplied to their homes, schools and their neighbourhoods. This greatly helped them in understanding the various water quality parameters and their standards, their permissible limits and the diseases caused if present beyond the permissible limits in depth. TERI's drinking water quality testing kit has been provided to all the 25 project schools as part of the project.

DID YOU KNOW?

a. Every day 2 million tons (1.8 billion kilograms) of human waste is disposed off in waterways around the world.

b. In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters, polluting the usable water supply.

c. Unclean drinking water kills one child every eight seconds somewhere in the world!

WATER WISE

• Always boil and filter drinking water

• Store water in clean and covered containers

• Do not store water in pet bottles

• Ensure regular cleaning of all drinking water storage containers