The Ministry of Environment has asked public views on something that might initially shock you. The ministry has issued a draft notification that seeks to ban membrane-based water purification systems (MWPS), primarily reverse osmosis (RO).
The ban would be for areas where the water supplied meets the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms. This move comes after National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order given in May last year. As per NGT’s order use of RO shall be prohibited in places where total dissolved solids in the supplied water are below 500 mg per liter.
The tribunal further said that RO filters led to wastage of water and essential salts are filtered out during the purification process. The Ministry has invited comments from stakeholders before issuing an order on banning such water purification systems.
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If the ban comes in effect then violation would be brought to the notice of the state and central pollution control boards and the latter will be the nodal agency for implementing the rules.
Inputs from Livemint
