Initiative to bring clean drinking water to India

A new water research initiative will be established at the University of NSW thanks to funding from the Tata Trust of India. The program aims to provide clean drinking water to regional India through low-cost water purification solutions.

One project will develop a low-energy filter to remove salt, fluoride, arsenic and nitrates from water sources, which is simple and robust enough to be used at the village level. The second is a larger reverse osmosis water filtration plant that can be mounted on small utility vehicles. The initiatives will be jointly run by UNSW’s faculties of Engineering, Science and Arts & Social Sciences, with the latter focused on helping engender social acceptance of the technologies.

According to UNSW Dean of Engineering Mark Hoffman, the impact of the Tata-UNSW Water Initiative is likely to be profound. Villages in India where the water quality is poor will be targeted first, before the intervention is scaled up across various states.