0 PCMC to install generator for Nigdi water purification plant

Siddharth Gaikwad

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has planned to install a new power generator at its water purification plant at sector 23 in Nigdi in order to ensure uninterrupted water supply to all areas in the township. The municipal corporation will incur a cost of Rs 1.2 crore for installing the generator.

According to PCMC joint city engineer Pravin Tupe, a generator with a capacity of 1,000 KVA will be installed at the water purification plant to ensure that water supply is not affected during power failures. The corporation would have to carry out some preliminary work. The work of installation of the generator would take at least eight months.

The installation of the second generator will primarily ensure that water supply to the eastern areas of the township - from Krishnanagar to Bopkhel -- remains unaffected.

The areas that will be benefit include Bhosari, Dighi, Sant Tukaramngar, Ajmera colony, and Chinchwad. The proposal for the installation of the generator will come up for discussion at the general body meeting on May 19.

Although, the corporation has generators at the water purification plant, they cater to the requirement of the plant itself, as well as to pump water for the Pradhikaran area. The water supply department needed a new generator which could cater to the needs of the eastern areas in case of power failures. Most of the western areas of the township get water by gravity.

The PCMC lifts 380 to 400 million litres per day (MLD) of water from Pavana river at Ravet. This water is first pumped to water purification centre at Nigdi. The treated water is then supplied as drinking water to the entire township.

The corporation has also asked the MSEDCL to strengthen the additional feeder at the water pumping station in Ravet. This will enable the civic body to draw raw water from Pavana even when there is a power failure in the main feeder line.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

0 Israeli water purification device returns to Earth

By SHARON UDASIN

Atlantis’ tested out new system to avoid dumping water into space; device has already been installed in places with water purification challenges.

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Among the passengers aboard the Atlantis space shuttle’s final voyage was an Israeli biomedical water purification device, which was undergoing initial tests for use in zero-gravity, outer space conditions.

The device, which contains technology that effectively removes bacteria and viruses from polluted water, was developed by a research team headed by Eran Schenker, an aerospace physician and director of the Aerospace Medicine Research Center at the Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, in collaboration with Haim Wilder, vice president of research and development of Strauss Water, and Prof. Eyal Shimoni, chief scientist of Strauss Group.

The goal for space operations, Wilder told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, is to be able to recycle 100 percent of water used and polluted by astronauts during their missions.

“It may be possible that in the near future, astronauts will not have to throw contaminated water into space,” Schenker said in a statement, referring to current procedures, in which all used water must be dumped into space.

After lifting off on July 8 for its final journey into space, the Atlantis landed on Thursday.

During the mission the astronauts were able to test out the Israeli water purification technology, and the results of the tests will soon be available to the team of scientists, who are currently monitoring the types of microbes that have grown on the device itself, Wilder said.

Inside the device, which was developed about six months ago, is a polymer-based substrate containing chemicals that are able to kill bacteria and viruses upon contact, Wilder explained. On Earth, the scientists had already tested that the technology works under the most extreme conditions and even had simulated a zero-gravity situation.

But they didn’t even find out that they were chosen to take part in the Atlantis trip until “one week before it went into the sky,” according to Wilder.

The Strauss-Fisher purification device is only one of many technologies that NASA has recently taken under its wing for experimentation, he said.

“Microbiology is a big problem in the sky because there’s a huge need to protect everyone traveling,” Wilder said.

Not only can the technology be useful in outer space missions, but it also can be used on Earth, in places where public water systems might not be safe for drinking out of the tap, according to Wilder. While not as useful in Israel, where the water is drinkable in most of the country, the company has already begun installing devices in various parts of China that face challenges in maintaining water purification, he explained.

Ofra Strauss, chairwoman of the Strauss Group, praised the scientific team in a statement for “improving the standard of living for people worldwide through the promise of safe and quality water.”

www.jpost.com

0 1m water purification tablets for rain-hit areas

Islamabad—More than one million water purification tablets will be supplied to save the rain-hit people from water borne diseases especially cholera, diarrhea in Sindh province, Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Zafar Qadir said on Monday. “We are seriously concerned with spread of epidemic diseases. Therefore, we are supplying aqua tablets to save the people especially the children from water borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and dysentery,” he told APP.

Zafar Qadir informed that all the disaster management teams of the Authority are also being dispatched to the affected areas for deployment, adding, these team will stay there till the end of the disaster. He said ten thousand tents are being provided to the rain affected people of Badin district while 10 thousand food ration packets are also being distributed among the rain victims through Utility Stores on daily basis on behalf of NDMA.

The Chairman informed that distribution of ration packets to affected people would continue till their rehabilitation. Besides, he informed that NDMA is also introducing the new concept of telemedicine with the objective to provide medical treatment to rain affected people on modern lines and save their precious lives. Zafar Qadir said that so far no international donor agency has extended cooperation and the entire rescue and relief work is being carried out at the expenses of Federal and Sindh Governments.

He, however, seek the cooperation of local NGOs, philanthropists as around three months are required to bring the situation to normalcy. He said on the directive of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Authority has distributed relief items including 12,700 tents, three water purification plants and 23,000 family ration packs, to the flood-affected people in Sindh. The relief goods have been distributed in the inundated districts of Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan and Mirpur Khas besides the badly damaged Mithi Town of Tharparker District, he added.

The Chairman informed that the National Emergency Operations Room at the NDMA is functioning round-the-clock to receive requirements and coordinate response. About crops, he informed that around 60 percent of cotton crops were damaged in the flood affected areas. “Crops of sugar-cane were not damaged in flood hit areas because the height of the sugar-cane is three feet above the flood water level,” he added. He said that all armed forces were managing the rescue part of flood relief operations.—APP

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