New Delhi: The environment ministry has issued a draft notification that seeks to ban membrane-based water purification systems (MWPS), primarily reverse osmosis (RO), in areas where the water supplied meets Bureau of Indian Standards norms.
The ministry has invited comments from stakeholders before issuing an order on banning such water purification systems.
“Installation or use of MWPS shall be prohibited, at the Point of Use or at the Point of Entry for purification of supplied water which is subjected to conventional flocculation, filtration and disinfection process or is from any sources which are in compliance with acceptable limit for drinking water prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standard,” the notification, issued on Monday, said.
This follows an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in May, which prohibited the use of RO purifiers in places where total dissolved solids in the supplied water are below 500 mg per litre. NGT had said RO filters led to wastage of water and essential salts were filtered out during the purification process.
The draft said any violation would be brought to the notice of the state and central pollution control boards and the latter will be the nodal agency for implementing the rules.
