Question : Waste Water Recycling by RO Companies

(a) whether the Government is aware that a large quantity of water gets wasted due to increasing number of Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the steps taken by the Government to purify water in the water reservoir itself to avoid installation of RO systems in homes;
(d) whether the Government has requested the RO manufacturing companies to make arrangements for waste water recycling during RO process to check wastage of water; and
(e) if so, the details thereof along with the response received from such companies?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION
(PROF. SANWAR LAL JAT)
(a) to (e) Yes, Madam. Government is aware that a drawback of Reverse Osmosis Technology is that some water gets wasted due to the use of this technology. However, application of Reverse Osmosis in drinking water treatment systems is preferable when the Total Dissolved solids (TDS) in raw water is high or there are multiple contaminants in raw water which warrant the use of Reverse Osmosis technology. Further, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has issued specification on Reverse Osmosis based point of use water treatment system in its specification IS 16240:2015. The specification states that RO system is not recommended for arsenic level above 0.1 mg/1 and fluoride level about 8.0 mg/1. also, the minimum recovery shall be equal to or more than 20 percent.
State Governments take several measures for providing safe drinking water to the people of the State by using different water purification technologies/processes like pre-chlorination, aeration, coagulation, sedimentation, filtration , disinfection etc. Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments in this regard through various schemes and programmes.
Central Government has been taking necessary action for encouraging recycle and reuse of water among different stakeholders including government and private industries. The National Water Policy, 2012 has also recommended that the recycle and reuse of water, including return flows, should be the general norm. The Policy has further recommended that recycle and reuse of water, after treatment to specified standards, should also be incentivized through a properly planned tariff system.

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