The fact that most water purifiers, being marketed with great fanfare, do not purify water well is receiving some publicity(See for example, "Water Purifiers Offer No Safety Against Contamination", DECCAN HERALD, 24-7-08). It has become a fad among educated people to have a water purifier in the kitchen. According to a water purifier company executive, an average of 1500 purifiers are bought in Mysore & about 15000 in Bangalore every month. Thus tens of crores of rupees are being spent by the public on these gadgets in the belief that they would save their health & in turn wealth. This expense is in addition to the tens of crores of rupees which are spent for treatment of public water systems. The irony is that all this huge expenditure is not ensuring the health of the people. So it is essential that the authorities take the following actions.
1.The claims of all "water purifier"s should be thoroughly checked and false claims should be made public and fined heavily for false representation. Such purifiers should be taken off the market.
2.Processing & treatment of water for public supply system is very expensive involving millions of rupees every day. But 95% of the treated water is used for non-potable purposes such as bathing, washing, gardening, etc. and hence does not really need to be highly treated. So most of the money we spend on water treatment is a waste. With this background, the approach on water supply should be rethought.
3. Suitable schemes should be put in place for collection & storage of pure rain water wherever possible for potable requirements exclusively. This would significantly reduce the pressure on water supply systems & public health.
4. WATER IS THE SINGLEMOST IMPORTANT ITEM FOR THE SURVIVAL AND WELFARE OF ALL THE LIVING ORGANISMS. The importance of judicious use of water should be inculcated through media & through education from the primary school level.