Posts Tagged ‘Potassium permanganate’

Arsenic Mitigation of Drinking Water

Presence of Arsenic in drinking tube-well water is possibly known to all. But how drinking water containing Arsenic is mitigated in different countries may not be known to all of us. The technologies used to mitigate Arsenic may be different. But it is essential for the underdeveloped countries to innovate a sustainable method to mitigate Arsenic which should be cost effective, affordable and adaptable for all.

In Bangladesh people have been using Alum and very small amount of Potassium permanganate in appropriate proportion mixed in powdered form (one must be sure about the quantity and the proportion of the ingredients before using or prescribing). Once I myself collected and used this mixture from Arsenic Mitigation project office of DANIDA in late nineteen’s while I was working in a district town and my tube-well was marked with red colour. This marking indicated that this tube-well water is harmful to drink because of Arsenic beyond the limit. However one teaspoonful of this powder is mixed in10 litters of water and kept for 10 to 12 hours. Some sediment is seen deposited at the bottom of the jar. Carefully clean water from top of the jar is transferred to other jar and then the sediment was disposed off safely by digging a hole in the ground where nothing is usually grown. Some of the NGO’s are distributing this mixture. But one of the disadvantages of this method is the safe disposal of the sediments. Because the sediment contains high concentration of Arsenic which is harmful for plants, vegetable, crops soil and water. So it is not environmentally friendly. Read more…