In the report submitted to NGT, it is said – Minerals disappear in RO water.
New Delhi, 15 January : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Union Ministry of Environment to issue notifications within two months to prohibit reverse osmosis systems (ROs) at places where the TDS content in water is less than 500 mg per liter.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh โโKumar Goel said the delay in compliance of its order relating to RO is causing great harm to the health and environment of the people. The NGT directed the filing of the compliance report of this order before March 23. The next hearing of the case will be on March 23. During the hearing, the Ministry of Forest and Environment sought four months’ time to comply with this order.
The Environment Ministry said that 4 months time is required for effective compliance of the order. The ministry said that it would take time for extensive publicity and notifications to be finalized. On November 6, 2019, the NGT reprimanded the Ministry of Forest and Environment for not complying with the earlier order on water wastage occurring during water purification from RO. The NGT gave the Ministry of Forests and Environment a final chance till December 31 to comply with the order.
The NGT ordered on May 20, 2019 that where the TDS of water is up to 500 mg per liter, there is no need for RO. RO should be used only if it is more than this. But this notification was not yet released by the Ministry of Forest and Environment. The NGT had said that the delay in issuing this notification adversely affects the health of the people.
In fact, the committee of experts constituted by the NGT had said in its report that there is no need to apply RO for the purification of the water supplied in the houses by the municipal corporations or the Jal Board. The expert committee in its report submitted to the NGT had said that if we drink the water of the municipal corporations through RO, it spoils our health because it makes the minerals disappear.
According to the committee, there is no need for RO to supply water through pipes from the sources of water on the surface of river, ponds and lake. According to the committee, RO is needed only in those areas where the TDS level is more than 500 mg per liter.
The petition has been filed by an NGO named Friend. The NGT constituted a committee on December 21, 2018 while hearing the petition. The committee consisted of representatives from the Central Environment Department, Central Pollution Control Board, Bureau of Indian Standards, IIT Delhi and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute Delhi.
