NGT orders Centre to act on water wastage in RO purifiers

The bench directed the MoEF to ensure further action positively before the next date of hearing on January 25

To prevent wastage of water in the use of RO purifiers, the NGT has directed Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to issue notification at the earliest banning RO purifiers where the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) in water is below 500 milligrams per litre.

The NGT Principal Bench headed by its Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the MoEF to ensure further action positively before the next date of hearing on January 25, irrespective of steps by any other department which may delay the matter.

Hearing a plea filed by NGO Friends, the NGT in July last year had directed the MoEF to issue by the year-end a notification banning RO( Reverse Osmosis) purifiers where TDS level in water is below 500 milligrams per litre.

The tribunal had granted more time after goverment informed the tribunal that the exercise could not be completed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry had in January 2020, sought four months for executing the NGT order.

The MoEF, in its plea, had said that four months are required for effective compliance of the order. The green panel expressed displeasure over delay to notify new norms.

"It may be noted that high total dissolved solids (TDS), requiring RO (treatment), is found in groundwater. Considering huge wastage of water as rejects in the use of RO, such use merely advancing commercial interests need at the cost of loss of valuable water which needs to be checked. This purpose is defeated by inordinate delay by MoEF," NGT.

"This amounts to acting against the interest of the environment. Instead of permitting ROs, conductivity and TDS in water can be regulated and controlled by coordination of regulators concerned Ministry of Jal Shakti with agencies supplying water like Water Supply and Sewerage/Municipal Body/Jal Nigam etc. saving a huge amount of water which is being unduly wasted in the process of use of ROs against public interest," the NGT said.

In a bid to regulate the use of RO purifiers, the NGT had earlier directed the government to prohibit them where TDS is below 500 mg per litre and to sensitise the public about the ill-effects of demineralised water.

The tribunal has also asked the government to make it mandatory to recover more than 60 per cent water wherever RO is permitted across the country.

The order had come following an expert committee report which said that if TDS is less than 500 milligrams per litre, a RO system will not be useful but will result in removing important minerals as well as cause undue wastage of water.