RO Purifiers and Extensive Water Wastage

An urban Indian home is more often than not likely to face extensive water shortage in the summer months. The water shortage has spawned various products and services which attempt to fill up the infrastructure gap left unfilled by the government. Potable water is now one of the key resources in short supply. The reasons are manifold and I will not delve into the cause for the shortage. My post is mainly to highlight the role of RO purifiers, a product which is likely to magnify the problem of water shortage.

RO purifiers have been in use for a long time, mainly in industrial applications and large scale water treatment systems. With the present water crisis in urban areas, water purifiers have sprung up in plenty. Each product variant claims to turn drain water into pristine potable water. And people are lapping it up to save on the cost of tanker supplied water or canned water. The problem with RO purifiers is not in the water safety or potability. It has to do with the operations and working. RO is used to separate out solid constituents and other dissolved particulates by forcing water under pressure through a micro-sieve. By using this technology, even brackish water can be made drinkable. The catch is in the details.

For every litre of potable water produced, the RO purifier dumps 3-4 litres of waste water. If you passed 4 litres of water through an RO purifier, it would produce only 1 litre of potable water. Now, this wastage is admissible if one is trying to convert brackish water into drinking water. But the water that is supplied through borewells or tankers or cans are not brackish! They are largely usable, with minimal filtration and UV. Since the RO purifiers are designed for treating even brackish water, they perform poorly in the normal household conditions.

For every one litre of water produced, the remaining 3 litres go wasted when they could have actually been used for non-drinking applications. This presents a serious concern since the final beneficiary of imposing further water shortages is the RO companies. The relevant water authority needs to take a look at this emerging phenomenon and impose measures to curb the usage of this product.