BIOSANITIZER Ecotechnology

Dr Uday S. Bhawalkar, Director; Sarita U. Bhawalkar, Research Assistant
Bhawalkar Ecological Research Institute (BERI), Pune 411009, India

(Paper presented at the UNICEF-supported SACOSAN III, the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation, November 18-21, 2008; Delhi)

Nature knows better how to keep the water sources clean and nourishing. Our traditions, also could maintain their water sources for the past 10,000 years. Water quality problems and water scarcity- both are due to pollution of air, caused by increase in the use of fossil fuels. This produces rain with nitrates and acidity. This pollutes the surface water bodies and also the groundwater. Agrochemicals also leach into the ground and surface water and add to the pollution.

Bhawalkar Ecological Research Institute (BERI), Pune has been researching all these aspects over the past 36 years and has developed an ‘Eco-Logic’ of waste prevention and in fact, of converting wastes into resources using the BIOSANITIZER Ecotechnology.

This paper discusses the theory behind this ecotechnology. It also gives several case studies based on the field scale projects that show enhancement of both quantity and quality of water.

Sections 1-7 discuss the root-cause-correction approach and Section 8 discusses the ‘Stand-alone Drinking Water Systems’

While man has been relying on the groundwater, to satisfy his drinking water needs in the past, surface water systems such as rivers, ponds and lakes were used for harnessing the water needed for washing, cleaning, etc. Groundwater provided the right quality for drinking because the water flows vertically downward and also horizontally through an ecological filter consisting of healthy soil and diverse plant roots. Please see the US EPA note on phytoremediation: http://www.clu-in.org/download/citizens/citphyto.pdf.

We can say that natural organic farming not only gives us healthy food, but also helps maintain the groundwater quality. This was well investigated at the Chemical Engineering Dept of IIT Bombay, since 1987. Please see below, Figure 1 that shows how an SBT (Soil BioTechnology) system can remediate both the organic and inorganic pollution (Table 1). Pollution, in fact, gets converted into resources using time-tested laws of nature. SBT was used to treat even the most challenging case of distillery wastewater. The technology has secured both Indian and US patent and several large scale projects have shown sustainable performance over the past 12 years, showing the same performance as phytoremediation, in 10% area and cost (Ref: PhD thesis of Uday S. Bhawalkar, IIT Bombay, 1997).

The pond/lake ecosystem, too, has natural mechanisms that can use human/animal waste as raw materials and produce resources. Ponds and lakes however are limited by low production, solubility and diffusivity of oxygen. Hence they have limited self-healing mechanisms as compared to those that are possible in healthy soils. They can fail if stretched beyond their limit. This is precisely why the surface water needs some filtration through a sand biofilter (needs periodic cleaning) or ideally through an ecological filter, that cleans itself through ecological mechanisms.

Conventional water sources were maintained clean on a sustainable basis only because laws of ecology were unknowingly followed. Human traditions, also, evolved using these laws.

During the past few centuries, population increased and many industrial processes had to be used to sustain the growing population. Use of agrochemicals and fossil fuels had serious impact on human ecology. Thousands of synthetic molecules were introduced without studying their long-term impact on the ecology. As a result, we have seen our water supply sources getting deteriorated, particularly during this century.

Bhawalkar Ecological Research Institute (BERI) has been researching this impact on our environment, taking ‘lessons from nature’; to develop sustainable techniques that can maintain the water supply systems. After all, nature has an evolutionary experience of about 4.6 billion years. Human culture, in India, is also about 10,000 years old and we cannot afford to neglect this vast knowledge base.

Ecology and ecological engineering are the emerging branches of science and engineering. Hence, considerable inspiration was derived from these branches, to develop the eco-logic. This became the most powerful tool to analyze any event in nature and human society, as well.

Waste is just a misplaced resource. This view suggests that best way to tackle the challenge of waste management is waste minimization, or matching the waste (resource) to its place of utilization. Any other approach of waste management means manipulation of waste, just shifting it from one place to another and spending extra resources to do this. It thus, becomes a costly operation and even a law cannot make it adoptable by the society.

Another wrong approach to waste management is suppressing the signals through mechanical, thermal or chemical means. These unpleasant signals are there in Nature, only to warn us that there is ‘waste of resources’. Examples of such signals are ugly appearance of certain animals (their behavior that can cause some nuisance), odor and pathogens that can cause diseases to man and his domesticated pets (plants and animals). These signals are suppressed through ‘clever’ mechanical traps, sterilization, incineration and also by use of chemical weapons (toxins). But nature does not tolerate this suppression of signals and new signals that can be harsher soon emerge.

BIOSANITIZER Ecotechnology has been developed over a period of 36 years, to arrive at an eco-friendly solution to this challenge. It applies to all sorts of waste, chemical/biological, organic/inorganic or solid/liquid/gaseous wastes, too. This approach involves tackling the root cause that produces the waste, in the first place.

Nature has evolved as an intelligent system that maximizes resource utilization and minimizes waste. Let us analyze few types of wastes here and examine their root cause.

Solid Organic (Non-toxic) Wastes: These include municipal solid waste (wet biodegradable portion), human and animal excreta, animal carcasses, agricultural waste, food industry waste, biotech industry waste, etc. Root cause that leads to waste of these resources is their nitrate contamination. This comes through improper use of nitrogenous chemical fertilizers in modern agriculture. Large-scale use of fossil fuels also leads to increase in the levels of oxides of C, N, S, etc. in air. Air pollution produces toxic acid rain that causes severe impact on soil health and also leads to toxic biomass production. Nature then tries to warn us through unpleasant warning bells, by using the mechanisms of spoilage of organics, odor, pathogens and pests.

Liquid Organic (Non-toxic) Wastes: These include municipal sewage, farm wastewater, food industry wastewater and biotech industry wastewater. Wastewater is nothing but wasted water; it is still valuable as water. The root cause of this waste is again, the nitrate contamination arising out of wrong agricultural practices and air pollution.

Toxic Organic Wastes: These are toxic because they are contaminated with a small/large amount of toxic chemicals coming out of industries. These may have a large portion consisting of nontoxic matter. Hence, converting the toxic into nontoxic is the clue, taken from nature. Nature has several mechanisms to achieve bioconversion in low-nitrate ecosystems.

Inorganic Wastes: These are mainly the salts of marine or industrial origin. Nature has a way of utilizing the salts, through the green plants. Pollution takes place only when the salts are not available in the right form, to the right plants. Nature harnesses several mechanisms that change the form of salts, making them act as minerals that can feed the plants. These mechanisms operate only at low nitrate value. Hence nitrate appears to be the root cause in this case, too.

To build the most effective eco-friendly technology, let us agree upon the following criteria of eco-logical waste management:

Man could develop and sustain all these years on the earth, only because he used common sense bio-indicators of pollution, health and prosperity. All pleasant events and creatures indicate health and prosperity. On the other hand, unpleasant events and creatures that cause some nuisance, indicate pollution. With better knowledge of evolving branches of ecology and ecological engineering, we can understand these bio-indicators in a better way now and use them to educate a common man so that everybody can contribute and keep our environment clean and green.

This method is more advanced and accurate than the conventional methods of laboratory analysis and also instrumental methods. These conventional methods are quite costly, hence not within the reach of a common man (who is sometimes the creator of pollution and also one who suffers from it, all the time). There is also a possibility of both intentional and unintentional human errors that can arise in these conventional methods.

Bio-indicators of pollution are based on following lessons drawn from the fields of ecology and ecological engineering:

Environmental standards are often based on the capabilities of conventional ‘clean-up’ technologies; some of which focus on suppressing the signals (alarms of pollution). Examples of standards, that need upgradation, are:

BOD and COD limit that is prescribed for soil application is unnecessary because healthy organic soil can benefit by receiving the high-COD water, as an organic liquid fertilizer. Healthy soil also has mechanisms to detoxify the toxic organic component of COD and also convert it into the ‘food for the soil’. Please see http://www.wikipatents.com/6890438.html . Soil application guidelines with respect to organic wastewaters should, thus, be based on bio-indicators such as absence of odour and pests.
In fact, water that has low BOD and COD has no energy that is required to sound the alarm of pollution, then come the pathogens into play. In such cases, we can end up (in true sense) in consuming the polluted water.
Root cause of pollution is nitrates and other non-protein-nitrogen (NPN) compounds. Proteins can produce still higher NPN when nitrates accompany them. Pathogens actually arise on the scene only to act as bio-indicator of pollution. They prefer substrate that has high nitrates and still better, those with proteins and nitrates. This fact is well understood by the people who are developing the biological weapons. Terrorists’ manuals, in fact, mention about growing the weapon-grade pathogens using the putrefying carcasses of animals. It is, hence, quite urgent that we understand the necessity of controlling the pathogens by going to their root cause, not by suppressing them by using another WMD, the chemical weapons such as chlorine.
Recent study (http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Environmental-Health/Chlorine-and-cancer.htm) in Taiwan on nearly 400,000 infants has found that pregnant mothers who drink or even shower in tap water, which is chlorinated, can double the risk of serious heart and brain abnormalities in their unborn babies. These findings, reported in the journal Environmental Health, links by-products of water chlorination - chemicals known as trihalomethanes (THM) - to increase the risk of holes in the heart, cleft palate and anencephalus, which results in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp This disturbing finding suggests that expectant mothers can expose themselves to the higher risk by drinking the water, swimming in chlorinated water, taking a bath or shower, or even by standing close to a boiling kettle.
In a city, sewage may have some pathogens coming from few sick people in the community and it is not practically possible to look for all possible human pathogens, in a cost-effective manner, in a short time. Hence, chlorination is practiced whenever there is any hint of sewage getting mixed in the groundwater or in the underground water supply line. Indicator organisms (such as total coliforms, fecal coliforms, E. coli, etc.) are used to detect sewage contamination. But these organisms are perfectly benign; they are used just because they are there in large number in healthy sewage. Now that we know the hazards of chlorination, are able to appreciate the eco-logical role of human pathogens and also have the root-cause correction technique such as the BIOSANITIZER, the conventional coliform tests may be discontinued. We also know now that it is easy to test water for ‘no pathogen niche’ by noting that water does not corrode copper, does not grow slimy layer on wet surfaces and does not breed mosquitoes when stored for a period longer than a week.
Rainwater is considered as pure if it has nitrates (possible chemical contamination in the rain) less than 45 ppm, the WHO limit for drinking water. Actually, Nature tells us through the bio-indicators that rain should be considered as polluted if it breeds mosquitoes upon storage. We all know, now, that stored rainwater (and also the ‘treated’ municipal water) breeds the mosquitoes (in warm region) that cause dengue or chikungunya to man. This is Nature’s way of warning man that we have to focus on quality of our drinking water. We use water for cleaning ourselves, both internally and externally. And, the cleaning efficiency is decided by the quality of water that we use for the cleaning purpose.
Aquatic pollution is also because of nitrates and other inorganics (P, Na, Cl, heavy metals, F, etc.). Nature prefers to have these plant food items stored in rock and has soil mechanisms to make them available to the plants, as per their genuine need. Rock can dissolve in an uncontrolled manner, only if rain is acidic (or if the acidity building chemical fertilizers are used). Rain acidity is due to air pollution because all the major air pollutants are acid-formers. Hence, one can monitor the rain quality and also the quality of ponds/lakes/sea by monitoring the pH. Ideal pH for sea, human body fluids and drinking water is 7.4. We need to upgrade the drinking water pH standard of 6.5-8.5. But, again the bio-indicators are more accurate. Having a pH of 7.4 when there is some alkaline effluent coming out of a nearby factory can easily fool one. ‘True’ pH (of around 7.4 pH) is indicated by presence of oysters and clams; these bio-indicators do not lie or make a mistake.
Similarly, survival of fish without aeration and supply of external feed is the best bio-indicator of healthy aquatic system. Healthy fish indicates that there is no unfulfilled biochemical oxygen demand; hence the BOD measurements are unnecessary. Moreover, the lab test may give a high BOD value because it is carried out in a sealed bottle and has no access to CO2 from air that may be necessary for some natural aquatic mechanisms. BIOSANITIZER-treated water may sometimes give a high BOD value in the laboratory test that needs a closed bottle. BIOSANITIZER action may need access to CO2 from air and when this is available in nature, fish can survive happily. We should, hence, modify the regulations based on fish survival instead of BOD. Fish should survive for 3-5 days (depending upon the temperature), without any aeration and feed, in a water container exposed to sunlight. This test will also confirm that there is no chemical toxicity in water.
Technologies are lacking for the treatment of inorganic pollution. Water softeners reduce hardness (Ca and Mg) to reduce the scaling problem. Here again, scaling is just an alarm that warns us that water has nitrates. Ca/Mg act as a battery that powers the alarm. Solving the scaling problem by removing the battery does not solve the root cause. Water softeners produce water that has higher Na (health hazard) and less of Ca and Mg (essential minerals).
Reverse Osmosis (R.O.) is seen as a technology to tackle the inorganic pollution. It produces low TDS permeate and also produces a reject stream that has higher pollution potential. We are also forced to waste water in the reject stream. Very few people may know that the R.O. permeate is, in fact, more corrosive and can pose health hazard. The increase in the corrosion is due to the fact that nitrates (being the smallest molecules) are allowed to a higher extent (6%) through the membranes, while other ions are allowed only 2-3%. Relative enrichment of nitrates thus makes the R.O. permeate, actually more hazardous.
Technologies are also lacking when it comes to treatment of toxic organics or POP (Persistent Organic Pollutants). These are reported as part of COD. Since the toxic component cannot be tackled, focus is on destroying all the COD into CO2. Ecotechnologies, however, can utilize both the toxic and nontoxic COD, they convert toxic component into nontoxic one. Hence law should prohibit COD removal through its destruction.
Metallic corrosion may be a better indicator of overall water quality. In fact, we can study how water (and food) quality got spoiled during the past 100 years and people changed their water/kitchen ware from clay pots, mild steel, copper, brass, tinned utensils, aluminum and now, to various grades of stainless steel and plastic. One can, thus, say that absence of corrosion of copper container (or, ideally, mild steel container) is quite a convenient indicator of truly clean water.
Similarly, sticky bio-film is produced on wet surface within 24 hours if water has nitrates that are in such a high range that the sticky denitrifying bacteria build up their population. So, an absence of sticky bio-film may be used as a bio-indicator of good water quality.
Ganga water can be stored for a long period, without any spoilage or mosquito breeding. This can be another bio-indicator of healthy drinking water.

BIOSANITIZER Ecotechnology involves using the BIOSANITIZER bio-catalyst granules in fluids (liquids and gases) and using the remediated fluid as a resource for healing the ecosystem. Please see: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5995777895451134666&q=biosanitizer&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
BIOSANITIZER granules convert polluted water into clean water, which also becomes a resource for eco-logical restoration of wells, borewells, water storage tanks, ponds and lakes. This action can be summarized as follows:

Pollution problems arise due to nitrates. Hence nitrate management is crucial. Low-nitrate systems develop self-healing ability. Inorganic as well as toxic organic pollutants get converted into resources, in low-nitrate systems.
Conventional denitrification technique consumes organic food and oxygen, to produce CO2 and waste heat. Nature prefers another reaction, i.e., combining nitrates, CO2 and waste heat to produce organics and oxygen. Green plants and also the BIOSANITIZER use this reaction. It is a resource-generating mechanism, while conventional denitrification is a wasteful reaction. Hence there are alarms associated with the conventional denitrification process.
BIOSANITIZER is a natural catalyst; 100 mg of this product has the capacity of 1 acre of rich natural forest, in terms of its nitrate utilization, CO2 trapping and oxygen production ability.
By adding BIOSANITIZER in a stream or a reservoir of polluted water, we get not only clean water, but the treated water has a potential to clean the whole ecosystem, without producing any other waste stream and without producing greenhouse gases. In fact, the treated water starts absorbing the CO2 and NOx from the air, thus helping ease the pollution that has increased by about 25% after we started using the fossil fuels.
Methodology that was used to develop the BIOSANITIZER and also to crack its mechanism can be learnt through the ’Methodology Articles’ at http://www.wastetohealth.com/methodology_articles.html. The following digital scale was also useful in analyzing the natural events. Mild (1st digit) pollution is converted into ‘visible’ indicators. A 2nd digit pollution sounds audible alarms, 3rd digit pollution is indicated to our skin, 4th digit pollution warns us through creation of odor or through short-term illness and 5th digit pollution causes premature death.

BIOSANITIZER has been used successfully in several field-scale projects to demonstrate its efficacy. Some case studies are presented below.

7.1 Virus Control in Aquaculture: BIOSANITIZER was applied, in 1997, in a commercial prawn (shrimp) farm where the production was suffering due to mass death arising out of viral attack. It is well understood in the aquaculture industry that management of nitrates (and other nitrogen species such as ammonia, nitrites, etc.) is a key to healthy prawn/fish growth. Increase in the nitrogen load reduces the dissolved oxygen (DO) level, particularly during the night when algal oxygen production stops. At low DO concentrations, prawns are under stress, which reduces their resistance to viruses. Virus is a wasteful mechanism of nature that uses nitrates but does not produce any resources. It is an alarm indicating that the nitrate level is high. The nitrate overload, and hence the viral problem was solved by use of BIOSANITIZER in the pond. Because of the oxygen production by the BIOSANITIZER, the food chain that converts prawn waste into prawn food also got triggered. Expenses on prawn feed thus got reduced, giving higher profit. The need to change the polluted water from the pond was also reduced, because prawn waste was feeding the algal food chain that produced the prawn food. Thus, waste of one process was utilized to feed another useful process. In conventional waste treatment, both organics and nitrates are destroyed to clean the water, which amounts to spending more resources to destroy the wasted resources.

7.2 Sewage Treatment: Taj Hotel at Madurai (in India) had set up a conventional sewage treatment plant wherein a compressor was to be used to inject air into diffuser pipes submerged in the aeration tank. This plant was retrofitted with BIOSANITIZER, in 1997, and aeration system was turned off. BIOSANITIZER was able to produce tertiary treated sewage without any recurring expenses and also without producing any sludge or greenhouse gases. The aeration tank developed a floating scum that supported a floating garden. The project has been working satisfactorily for the past 11 years and has been monitored by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board laboratory at Madurai.. The treated water is used for gardening. It has reduced inputs on fertilizers because the treated oxygen-rich water acts as a bio-stimulant to the plant life. It also has reduced pest nuisance and the Taj Hotel (Madurai) now hosts a population of 100 peacocks – an indicator of improved ambience.

7.3 Total recycle zero-odour public toilet (about 100 visitors per day) was set up by the Green Cross Society, at the municipal sewage pumping station at Versova (Mumbai).

This toilet has no water supply and also no sewage discharge. The thick sewage slurry (BOD of about 2,00,000 ppm) is treated in an eco-friendly manner using the BIOSANITIZER and the clean water is pumped to the overhead water tank that continues to flush the toilet during the day. This toilet has completed 3 years of its operation now, thus demonstrating the sustainability of treatment. Any shortfall in treatment would lead to accumulation of pollutants in such a total recycle system and the system would crash. It is reported that many five star hotels that are using the treated sewage for flushing the toilets, are facing the problem of nitrate build-up in the system and sewage turning black due to H2S formation. This invariably takes place in high nitrate sewage. Discharge of such sewage can create malaria mosquito nuisance, in the region.

Treated wastewater actually should be used when it is well treated. If it is discharged in the environment, it only indicates ‘mis-treatment’. Law should prohibit this.

7.4 Retrofitting of Existing STPs with BIOSANITIZER: The total recycle public toilet of Green Cross Society provided inspiration to the officers of Nashik Municipal Corporation, to use the BIOSANITIZER. Please see:

This resulted in the use of BIOSANITIZER in their 5 STPs in Nashik, treating about 120 MLD of sewage, without running the aerators. Apart from savings in the cost of running the aerators (repairs, maintenance and electricity consumption for total of 500 HP), the treatment is complete, in terms of remediation of human pathogens, N, P, Na, Cl, heavy metals, detergents and pesticides. Instead of producing the greenhouse gases during the sewage treatment, the STPs are trapping the greenhouse gases from the air, thus partly relieving the city from the air pollution created due to burning of fossil fuels. The treated sewage is not only clean in all the aspects, but also has healing effect on the Godavari River, the second longest river of India. The river water quality is being monitored, along with the individual STPs. Table 1 gives the performance (December 2007 and January 2008) of the Tapovan STP (Nashik) that has a capacity to treat 78 MLD of sewage. A typical river water analysis after the Godavari River emerges from the city, travels about 6 km and goes beyond a coal-based thermal power plant is given in Table 2.

It is seen that though only 120 MLD of sewage is being treated using the BIOSANITIZER at this time, it has a residual long distance healing effect on the ‘mistreated’ sewage, untreated sewage that enters the river (about 30 - 40%) and also the ‘mistreated’ industrial waste that enters the river. The thermal power plant that is about 2 km before the sampling point has severe impact on ecology through production of flyash (some particles do fly into the air, in spite of all the precautions) that has heavy metals and radioactivity hazard.

The river water quality, in fact, appears to be better than the current drinking water standards (IS 10500).

This is a significant achievement because the Godavari river has this quality in spite of emerging from an industrial city with 1.5 million population, followed by its travel across a thermal power plant that burns about 10,000 tons of coal per day.

This also shows that the BIOSANITIZER reaction has a residual long distance effect on the water stream. Hence, we could get this water quality in spite of the fact that only about 50% sewage is treated using the BIOSANITIZER.

Table 1: Performance of 78 MLD STP at Nashik during December 2007 and January 2008

Table 2: Water Analysis of Godavari River (350 MLD flow), at 6 km downstream of Nashik,
on 26th May 2008

7.4 Lake Clean up: Powai Lake In Mumbai and Pashan Lake in Pune were successfully treated with BIOSANITIZER. Both the lakes were getting sewage streams into them, rainwater coming only for about 60 days of the year. Water hyacinth and mosquito breeding were controlled in both the lakes. Instead, useful vegetation such as lotus plants and fodder grass has started growing on the shallow edge. Any useful plant matter gets harvested and this helps the ecology.

The bottom mud also became clean; snails revived after 20 years, it also supported silky lawn (and not thorny or poisonous plants) when the lake bottom was exposed to sunlight in the summer. Lake mud also became soft and suitable for making Ganesh idols, please see: http://www.alumni.iitb.ac.in/news/nav_srujan.htm.

These observations indicate that after surface water gets cleaned, Nature starts cleaning the bottom of the water bodies. Silky grass can grow, without weeds, only on the clean soils. Earthworms also appear in such soils; they grind soil particles down to one micron, making the soil suitable for Ganesh idols.

7.5 Ecosanitation of Sewers: Death of four municipal workers was reported in 1997 in Pune, due to the generation of toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, etc. This was due to high nitrate loading from the public toilet. The Pune Municipal Corporation used BIOSANITIZER and the BIOSANITIZER action was immediate. One could note the reduction in the toxic gases that is due to oxygen production, within a few minutes.

It was observed that by adding the BIOSANITIZER catalyst granules at the higher level of the sewer system, one could start sewage treatment by using the sewers as bioreactors. The sewers were observed to remain relatively free of sewer corrosion, foul gases and scavenging creatures such as cockroaches, rats and redworms. It was also found that wherever people used the BIOSANITIZER to clean their overhead water supply tanks, the sewers, too, remained clean. After all, sewage problems arise due to nitrates and our drinking water also has high nitrates. Hence using the BIOSANITIZER in the water supply tank of each family makes an eco-logical sense. One such family, in fact, reported that because they were using the BIOSANITIZER in their drinking water, they could resist food poisoning that occurred in a marriage party and all other people needed hospitalization. This proves that BIOSANITIZER treated water has residual detoxifying ability. This is a great feature in today’s toxic life. BIOSANITIZED water can clean the whole ecology, within its limits of pollution bandwidth.

Municipal authorities are recommending that the water tanks that are there in each building, need frequent cleaning, ideally once a week, with a ‘dry day’, to prevent breeding of dengue mosquitoes. This is not practically feasible and tank cleaning is also a wasteful process. Now people have started using the BIOSANITIZER in their overhead water tanks, please see: http://www.wastetohealth.com/going_natural.html

7.6 Ecosanitation of Sewage Streams (Nallas): When a city has unplanned fast growth, sewage is seen to flow to the river or lake via natural streams which also carry storm water during the rainy season. Rain is seasonal (for about 60 days) in most of India; during the rest of the year these streams carry only the sewage. Being deprived of oxygen, the water turns black (due to formation of metal sulfides). No vegetation can survive within about 10 m of these anaerobic sewage streams. One-time input of BIOSANITIZER near the starting points of eight such natural drains in Pune resulted in oxygen-rich streams within a few hours. The redox potential was found to improve from minus 300 to plus 100 within a few days. This shows oxygen production. The streams developed a pale green tinge, instead of black color. Bird life started returning. Healthy air also changed the vegetation along the streams, and PMC constructed Nalla Parks along their banks. The construction cost of these Nalla Parks was insignificant because the healthy atmosphere created by the oxygen-rich streams had a tonic effect on vegetation. Pune’s Mula-Mutha river, which carries about 800 MLD of sewage, also showed oxygen-rich environment, from which water hyacinth disappeared and healthy organisms (including bird life) appeared. Floating oily layer disappeared and the water surface had mirror-like smooth appearance. The water quality was found to be that of tertiary treated sewage, though there was hardly any formal sewage treatment through conventional means. This BIOSANITIZER effect has sustained for the past 8 years, in spite of annual floods. The riverbed hosts a circus now, each year. It has become the most popular spot in the city, because of the fresh oxy-rich atmosphere. One can see the crowd on the food joints there, till the midnight. The dry riverbed grows green grass throughout the year, without any irrigation. This suggests that irrigation need of plants increases with the pollution level of air, soil or water. By using the ecosanitation techniques, we can conserve water in agriculture and have more output from a given amount of water. This is easy to appreciate because it is well known fact that organic agriculture is water conserving, whereas chemical agriculture needs higher amount of irrigation.

7.7 Decentralized Sewage Treatment: Ten decentralized sewage treatment projects were set up in and near Pune, to treat the sewage generated by urban buildings and industries. The projects were simple, amounting to applying a one-time dose of BIOSANITIZER in the septic tank. There is no need to de-sludge these units and the oxy-rich water coming out of these units also becomes an asset for gardening and ecosanitation. Its spray helps control odor, pathogens, and pests in the environment. Architects and builders are now coming forward to incorporate sewage recycling by each building, thus reducing the expenditure on sewers and sewage pumping. In fact, sewage recycling has become mandatory in Pune, at least for big buildings.

The Center for Science and Environment (CSE), the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize 2005, has produced “A Wastewater Recycling Manual for Urban Areas, with Case Studies” (CSE, 2008). It gives a comparative evaluation of conventional and emerging natural treatment technologies. BIOSANITIZER technology stands out as the most cost-effective, practical, resource-generating technology.

BIOSANITIZER technology is launched in the USA, with four wastewater treatment projects in operation. The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), UNEP and UNICEF have shown interest in the technology.

7.8 Army Navy Environmental Park & Training Area (ANEP), located at Colaba in South Mumbai, had been using sewage from the nearby buildings, to green the lawns and maintain hundreds of trees, for the past 15 years. Sewage was just collected in tanks and pumped to the sprinklers, aim was to save precious drinking water and harness the nutrients in the sewage.

Without proper treatment of sewage, there were several problems such as pest infestation of trees, some died because of this. Odour was worst when the sewage was sprinkled. It was unbearable to all who visited that area.

People, who had to handle the sewage and came in its contact, had severe health issues, such as severe etching, skin diseases, breathing difficulties, etc.

Sewage was not able to support the vegetation by itself and extensive use of pesticides, urea, phosphate and other fertilizers had to be used. In spite of this, the pest population such as flies, mosquitoes, rats, crows increased their activity and created great nuisance.

Conventional sewage treatment costing about Rs 40 lakh was discussed but it was not finalized because it had its own operating hassles and produce sludge that needs further disposal.

At this junction, it was decided to use the BIOSANITIZER bio-catalyst granules directly in the sewage tanks, to convert the nuisance of sewage into resources.
Just within 2-4 weeks, positive improvements could be seen.

Odour distance reduced, from 50 meters to barely 5 meters. Odour that lasted over many hours in the past now lasted barely 5 minutes after spraying.

After 6 weeks, crows which were the dominant bird species remaining in the entire 47 acres area, were noticeably less agitated. Other species which had flown away from the area, now returned once again, after a gap of over 3 years.

Thus once again the park could see birds such as kingfishers, parrots, bulbuls, whoopee, bats, egrets, herons, budgies, quail, cuckoo, and many other birds. The staff noticed these changes and they had no health problems now.

After 12 weeks, the trees were quite healthy, without any pest infestation and the greens too showed deep lush colors.

All these benefits came though a small trial dose of BIOSANITIZER was used and no new tanks were constructed. With the small contact time (about 1 hour) that the existing tanks provided, the results were amazing. The nearby sea also improved its quality because part of the treated sewage went into the sea.

An Indian Navy Diver, CDR. Abhijeet Yadav, who was regularly swimming off the Naval Dockyard, had reported spectacular changes, in the sea.

Visibility was barely 15 cm in the past. The entire sea surround was full of oil blobs, floating faeces from nearby slums, pushed with the tide. But the worst trouble they all faced was the fact that it took an entire 2 hours to clean up, and even then the lingering odour would not leave their skin.

Since March 2008, their group observed that, not only did the smell became zero, but floating faeces, oil blobs, all disappeared, visibility increased to 60 cm. Cleaning their bodies would take just 15 minutes, now, after an excursion in the sea.

Mosquitoes, flies, rats and other pests had altogether disappeared, as if re-located elsewhere. Mosquito breeding had completely stopped in the sewage tanks and the water pond on the site.

This site of Army Navy Environmental Park and Training Area, thus, has demonstrated how the BIOSANITIZER converts sewage into resources that can solve the pest infestation and produce good vegetation; also influence the sea water quality nearby. This site is also a good example of monitoring the BIOSANITIZER performance through diverse bio-indicators that anybody can understand and appreciate. They can be used everyday, by everybody absolutely free.

7.9 Decentralized Garbage Composting Units: More than 10,000 decentralized garbage-composting projects have been set up in Pune. It is reported that about 1/3 of the total organic waste (1200 tons) that is produced today in Pune, is utilized by such decentralized units. Other cities in India are also following this trend. The technology is also exported to other regions such as EU (Ireland) and USA. The method is to apply BIOSANITIZER to clean the groundwater/surface-water (including sewage) and spray the treated oxygen-rich water on the garbage heap each day to ensure eco-friendly bioconversion into compost. It is found that there is absence of odor, pathogens, and pests. There is no heat generation and production of greenhouse gases is minimal. The yield of the compost is about 50%, which is much higher than (about 30%) when garbage is composted without the use of BIOSANITIZER. The loss is primarily due to higher production of CO2 in the conventional processes. BIOSANTIZER technology, can thus, avail the carbon credits, making it more cost-effective to the user.

The Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA), a wing of Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India, has taken up active promotion of decentralized garbage composting, using the BIOSANITIZER technology. It has become important now, to avoid unnecessary transport of garbage and compost and also reduce the consumption of the petroleum feedstock for the production of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Both these objectives can be met just by recycling garbage into compost, in a decentralized manner, using the BIOSANITIZER technology.

The 300 TPD MSW composting unit at Nashik, too had the odor problem. The problem became acute when the remote site of the composting unit came near the city after the city developed beyond it.

BIOSANITIZER granules were kept in a water tank and this oxygenated water was used to spray the garbage trucks and garbage heaps being composted. Odor problem eased out considerably. Leachate generation also reduced considerably and became healthy organic juice.

Dead dog could not be noticed for a week just because it was in touch with this healing organic juice.

It is mandatory for the composting units to have a concrete platform so that the acidic leachate containing heavy metals is collected and treated. This unit also has a leachate treatment unit, which plays its active role during the rainy period.

To keep the leachate treatment unit in operation, round the year, selected green vegetable waste is ground and pulped to produce a leachate-like liquid. This is treated using the BIOSANITIZER. Fish are happy to enjoy the treated leachate, without any aeration. Hence, this is Nature’s approval that the leachate is now eco-friendly, meaning a resource for soil or aquatic life.

Such pilot studies have helped create confidence that one can carry out composting directly on the soil if BIOSANITIZER technology is used. The cost of constructing the concrete platform, can, thus be avoided.

With the use of BIOSANITIZER technology, the composting operation can be carried out under a row of trees and health of these trees can be used to monitor the composting operation, along with other bio-indicators such as absence of odor and pests. Leachate production gets reduced because of BIOSANITIZER. And because it is healthier, the active root zone of the trees also utilizes it.

7.11 Bio-medical or hospital waste is considered a hazardous waste. Incineration is seen as the safest way to get rid of pathogens and toxic chemicals in it. But this leads to the production of higher amount of nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and dioxins (if plastics, such as PVC, also get incinerated along with it). This can produce more health problems to the society by production of toxic rain. Six hospital waste recycling units were installed and operated in and near the Pune city. The Department of Microbiology in Pune’s B. J. Medical College evaluated the system for four years and concluded that BIOSANITIZER produced safe compost. Air and soil near the units was also safe. Even viruses such as the hepatitis virus were controlled without any recurring inputs and without producing any air pollution. Avoiding unnecessary handling and transport of the hazardous waste - is the main advantage of this method. Please see: http://www.wastetohealth.com/medical_waste_disposal_technique.html.

7.12 Rainwater Harvesting and Flood Control: Soil has a built-in mechanism to restrict the entry of polluted water into groundwater. Soil, thus, can soak in just 10 mm/d of polluted water. After applying BIOSANITIZER in the surface water pool, one can find that water starts penetrating much faster, up to 1,000 mm/d. This was the rain of July 26, 2005 deluge in the Powai-Vihar lake area of Mumbai. One can thus use the BIOSANITIZER not only for treatment of water, but also for effective rainwater harvesting, flood control and groundwater recharge.

7.13 Treatment of Saline and Brackish Groundwater: About 2,000 farmers and industries have used BIOSANITIZER to treat saline/brackish groundwater, also with inorganic/organic pollution. A one-time dose was applied into a well/borewell. BIOSANITIZER granules operate from the bottom and keep on producing oxygen. This drives the natural reactions that convert the salty/brackish water sweet, both for the tongue as well as for the plants. This water also resists scaling, corrosion, algae, bio-fouling and growth of pathogens/pests. It becomes a resource for organic agriculture and ecosanitation. The mechanism is similar to that used by the coconut tree in converting saline/brackish water into sweet coconut water.

7.14 Treatment of Fossil Fuels: BIOSANITIZER catalyst granules were added in the fuel tanks of stationary/mobile I.C. engines. Several improvements occurred, such as extra mileage, extra engine power, cooler/quieter engine, and lower repair/maintenance expenses. The benefits depend upon the fuel quality. The exhaust from these vehicles is cleaner and cooler and also has healing effect on the ecology. BIOSANITIZER thus carries out reactions similar to the Vedic yajnya, thus producing healing gases, instead of polluting gases. BIOSANITIZER, thus, is a pre-combustion catalytic converter. This is a better approach than the currently used post-combustion catalytic converters, which produce no resources.

7.15 Disaster Management: The utility of the BIOSANITIZER technology was well demonstrated after the July 26, 2005 deluge in Mumbai, when it rained about 1000 mm in a day. Accumulated garbage heaps and dead carcasses of 16,000 animals created severe sanitation hazard in Mumbai. Combining BIOSANITIZER with a 100-ppm solution of calcium nitrate created special bio-spray. This was sprayed on stinking garbage heaps and animal carcasses. The results of ecosanitation achieved were dramatic, as seen by control of odor, pathogens and pests. This was a joint project of Green Cross Society of Mumbai, Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Indian Express Initiative. The operation was also extended in the jurisdiction of Vasai Municipal Council where dead buffaloes were dumped and their neglect could have created conditions suitable for plague. It was also found that polluted water ponds started generating ripples of oxygen production, within a few minutes of application of BIOSANITIZER granules into the pond. The healthy gases produced healthy growth of food crops in the region, mosquitoes were reduced and the pond water started going down. Nature allows higher percolation rate as soon as the water quality improves. The neighboring well that was heavily polluted soon started producing drinkable water.

This deluge flooded the unheard Mithi River that originates from the Vihar-Powai lake region, passes along the Mumbai airport and meets the sea at Mahim. But the flooding of Mumbai had no negative impact on health of 10 million population of Mumbai city. This was because of the BIOSANITIZER that was used in the Powai lake and the lake water was overflowing into the Mithi river. In fact, people rendered voluntary help to the community and the city could recover within a few days. Similar deluge that took place because of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (USA), within a few weeks, needed much longer recovery period. People there also exhibited unsocial behavior by looting the shops, instead of helping each other. This shows how healthy water and human chemistry can produce good citizens. Modern research, in fact, has shown a link between human chemistry and crime, please see: http://www.biolab.co.uk/docs/nkpaper.pdf.

Another breakthrough event at the Mahim sea was its sweetening for just a short period, on August 18, 2006. One reason can be the dilution of both Mithi river water during the rainy season, accompanied by dilution of the sea. But the sea does not get ‘sweet’ each time it rains and a river meets the sea.

People flocked to witness the rare event, mistook it as a ‘miracle’ and started taking the ’teerth’ (holy water) in their mouth. Some took it to their home for the benefit of others and future use.

Doctors and municipal authorities cautioned the people about the risk of drinking the polluted water. After all, the Mithi river carries with it heavy metals, toxic organic chemicals, sewage and all possible pollutants. It was projected that people will fall sick in large number and will need hospitalization. In fact, the hospitals were told to remain ready for the flood of patients within 2-3 days.

But no such rush of patients got reported later. This proved the efficacy of BIOSANITIZER in healing a lake, river and the sea that is getting flooded with all sort of pollution. So, the holy ‘teerth’ was produced by the BIOSANITIZER.

BIOSANITIZER tackles the nitrates and at low nitrates the salt (Rs 1,000 note) becomes sweet (bunch of Rs 10 notes). This is Nature’s chemistry that cannot be understood by persons trained only in conventional chemistry. But we can see it working where mangrove plants are flourishing and also at Mulund (in North Mumbai, on Eastern Express Highway) where green fodder is being grown on commercial scale over the past 10 years, using the seawater mixed with BIOSANIZED sewage. This opens new possibilities of using the seawater for agriculture, industries and also for communities. BIOSANITIZER helps us to reduce the salinity through utilization of salts to grow food-fuel-fiber etc. and then get sweet water.

Another ‘miracle’ has sustained in Sewri-Thane creek of Mumbai. 20,000 lesser flamingoes are found to happily feed during the past 6 years, on tidal mudflats in front of an oil refinery, nuclear research facility, a petrochemical plant and creeks bringing untreated waste from millions of people in the slums of Mumbai. Scientists who have studied the lesser flamingoes, in fact, are wondering why they are there in polluted creek of Mumbai when they are dying in ‘clean’ lakes in Africa. Please see: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE120080324030414&Page=1&Title=Bangalore&Topic=0&.

This can be easily explained if healing power of BIOSANITIZER is taken into account. BIOSANITIZER has been used for many projects in Mumbai during the past 20 years and the effects are multifold and sustainable.

7.16 Prevention of Disasters: Best way to manage disasters, however, is to go to their root cause and prevent their occurrence, in the first place. One may say that natural disasters are inevitable. But Eco-Logic tells us that all unpleasant events serve as warning bells, some also serve to punish us if we refuse to listen to the mild warning bells. They, thus, are all man-made disasters nowadays, and are the indicators of our wasteful habits of neglecting natural resources. If the events are natural, they should occur at the same frequency over the years, like the eclipses. But the hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, floods, droughts and epidemics are coming with increasing frequency during this century. Hence, they are more due to human interference, than due to natural causes.

Sir Alfred Nobel found the destructive power of nitrates and created explosives by formulating the nitrates and a triggering carbon compound.

The reaction is almost like a nuclear reaction; the science of it is not well discussed. When we allow the leakage of nitrates in our oceans, groundwater, etc. they work by the same mechanism and produce destructive energy that is visible in hurricanes and earthquakes. One can, now, replace this mechanism with the resource-generating mechanism of the BIOSANITIZER. This way, we not only can prevent these destructive events, but also generate ten times higher value of resources, than the losses that can be inflicted by these events.

Forest fires or wildfires are common in USA, Canada and Greece. High nitrate ecosystems have biomass with a high calorific value and this makes the fire fighting a challenge. Some fires may also start due to auto-ignition that we see in high-nitrate garbage or compost heaps; so actual spark may not be necessary in case of forest fire. On average, forest fires burn 4.3 million acres in the Unites States (in Arizona, California, Colorado and Oregon) annually. In recent years the federal government has spent $ 1 billion a year on fire suppression.

Even a heavy downpour can take time to suppress such fires. But one can now use the BIOSANITIZER in the forest as pretreatment, few months advance of the summer, or resort to spraying of BIOSANITIZER spray when the forest is already on fire. This water also has better fire-fighting ability than ordinary water. It also reduces smoke that has healing power, similar to that produced by traditional Indian homa fire. BIOSANITIZED water also resists hydrogen production (that can actually increase the fire initially) when water goes in the hot region of fire, at the start of fire fighting.

Floods are due to increased air pollution; they also are followed by long dry period. Floods and droughts, thus, go hand in hand. One can reduce the air pollution and have a well-distributed rain pattern, that too of low nitrates. This gets readily soaked into the ground, thus avoiding floods. The stored ground water becomes available as a water-source in the summer and thus avoids the drought. Please see http://www.wastetohealth.com/biosanitizer.html.

Emerging epidemics, such as the bird flue are due to overloading our food/water/air with nitrates. Each virus needs a bandwidth of nitrates. Only when man or his pets go into the bandwidth of a particular virus, there is an expression of disease. By using the BIOSANITIZER to treat the animal feed, their drinking water and also by using the BIOSANITIZED water for our drinking, cooking, cleaning, etc. It will be quite easy to stay healthy and not worry about the emerging modern health challenges.

AIDS and all other viruses, actually come to scavenge the surplus nitrates. According to Prof Duesberg, a noted virologist from the University of California, Berkeley, AIDS is not due to HIV, but because of drug abuse, please see www.duesberg.com.

While the AIDS in the developing countries is due to malnutrition (unavailability of proteins and sugar for nitrate management), AIDS in USA started in gay population that used the drug called amyl nitrate for relaxing the muscles during the sex act. But the use of proteins and sugar is a costly way to tackle the nitrates. Better way is to use the BIOSANITIZER to clean water, food and air, to remain healthy, creative and happy.

Increase in crime and terrorism is a serious threat to human community today. Recent study has related these human vices to heavy metal pollution. Heavy metals are there in natural, safe form when they are insoluble in rock. But acidic rain makes them soluble. Acidic rain is a modern phenomenon because of increase in the levels of NOx and CO2 in the air. There is about 25% rise in these polluting gases in the post industrialization era when we started burning the fossil fuels and the natural forests could not cope up with it. Now, with 100 mg of BIOSANITIZER that gives the same bio-services as that rendered by 1 acre of natural forest, we will be able to tackle the challenge of greenhouse gases and climate change. For achieving this, we should treat every water body (ponds and lakes), water streams, rivers and all the fossil fuels that urgently need the BIOSANITIZER treatment.

It will take quite some time for the root-cause-correction approach (discussed so far, in this paper) that will ensure both the quantity and quality of drinking water to the people. Situation is grave in rural areas, particularly in the developing countries. We give below several case studies wherein people could get ‘clean and healing water’ without use of any chemicals or electricity, without any repairs/maintenance of the gadget and without producing any waste stream( that also wastes precious water).

8.1 Farmers use groundwater for drinking and for irrigation. Some farmers use the surface water (from the river or a canal) that is also polluted with inorganics, the root cause of all the water quality problems.

Hardness is the most ‘visible’ problem that people have to face. It causes kidney stones, chokes the drip irrigation tubes and leaves white deposit on leaves when sprinklers are used. Soil also develops white crust, loses its fertility and becomes dead, soon. Pulses take a long time to get cooked and tea may get spilt. Soap does not produce foam and hair can get ‘sticky’ after a bath.

Use of water softeners is beyond the reach of farmers. Some rich and educated farmers do install the water softening units, but face difficulties in their operation and maintenance. Disposal of the waste stream is also a problem because this can pollute the water source again.

Farmers in diverse regions in India, however, could solve the hardness-related problem without the use of water softeners (or the reverse osmosis system that is needed in more challenging cases) just by putting the BIOSANITIZER crystals into their well or borewell. All the problems described above were solved and the farmers could notice the improvements using their common sense, without resorting to laboratory analysis. They also got better results in their farming operation, such as savings in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Quality of the produce was also better.

A Maharashtra State Police Training Institute near Daund (a rail junction about 60 km south of Pune) had water quality problem in their borewell. Though the water flow was abundant, they could not use it for drinking or irrigation because of salt problem and had to buy tanker-loads of water. Aim was to make the water usable and save daily expenditure on water tankers.

The institute used BIOSANITIZER and tested water both before and after the BIOSANITIZER application. (Table 3) The borewell is yielding about 1,000 m3/day of water and the State Police Training Institute has been using the treated water with great satisfaction over the past 3 years.

The small increase in nitrates and Fe (but still below limit) is a feature of BIOSANITIZER mechanism. Similar is the case of increase in the coliform count. When a higher digit pollution parameter is reduced, a lower digit parameter can increase, like a case of reduction of loan from Rs 9,99,999 to 1,00,000. We all know well that coliforms are not the human pathogens; they are bacteria that indicate ‘niche’ of healthy curd and healthy sewage.

8.2 Urban Use: Urbanites are not fully happy with the quality of municipal tap water. Hence several water purifiers are offered in the market. Packaged drinking water is also purchased by few rich people at home and during travel, cinema halls and offered during the conferences. Government meetings also go smooth with it.

Several urbanites have been enjoying the BIOSANITIZER-treated water over the past 10 years. The improved taste is appealing, that is ‘Nature’s certificate’. After all, man has survived and evolved in the right direction, only by using his 5 senses. BIOSANITIZER can remediate even the hazardous pollutants (these are often silent) or make them noticeable if there is some severe overload.

Method is to put the BIOSANITIZER in the 1-liter travel-bottle, in the 20 liter kitchen water pot or ideally, in the overhead water supply tank, please see:http://www.wastetohealth.com/going_natural.html.

BIOSANITIZER was also used by many urbanites to solve the water quality problems with respect to their wells or borewells.

“Healing’ power of the BIOSANITIZED water was noticed by many people. They reported improvement in overall health (both of body and mind). Most common benefit was relief from the acidity and skin problems. Few cases of solving chronic health problems were also reported, such as relief from spondylosis. Reduction in alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and also in the use of high-protein diet was reported.

All these problems can be traced to nitrates and other inorganic pollutants in water.

A family that was using the BIOSANITIZED water for drinking and cooking reported one interesting case. This not only takes care of toxic organics (pesticides) and inorganic pollutants that are there in food, it also provides a residual healing effect inside the stomach. Hence, the family was protected during a food poisoning episode that took place in a marriage party. Other people had to suffer.

8.3 Governmental Water Supply Schemes have started evaluating the BIOSANITIZER, a powerful and convenient way of solving the water quality challenges before them. A case study of treatment of a high TDS borewell at Vaghela village in Surendra-nagar district of Gujarat is given below (Table 4). The case study was taken up by WASMO (Water and Sanitation Management Organization), Govt. of Gujarat.

	Characteristic	Turbidity NTU	TDS mg/l	pH	Hardness mg/l	Ca mg/l	Mg mg/l	Cl mg/l	SO4 mg/l	NO3 mg/l	F mg/l	Alkalinity mg/l	Tested by
	IS-10500:1991
	Desirable limit	5	500	6.5–8.5	300	75	30	250	200	45	1.00	200
	Permissible Limit	10	2000	6.5–8.5	600	200	100	1000	400	100	1.50	600
5.12.07		Nil	5700	7.50						>200	3.0		Field Test Kit
5.12.07		7.8	7500	7.41	1122	520	306	2960	877	502.3	0.74	444	Lab Test
15.12.07		20 - 80	7800	7.00						>200	1.50		Field Test Kit
15.12.07		22.6	6800	7.27	2020	440	220	3180	2270	547.6	0.98	600	Lab Test
24.12.07	BIOSANITIZER added
24.1.08		Nil	2600	7.00						10 - 45	1.00		Field Test Kit
27.2.08		Nil	3400	7.00						45	1.50		Lab Test
4.3.08		Nil	3400	7.00						Nil	1.0– 1.5		Field Test Kit
4.3.08		Nil	3236	7.30	928	182	114	1320	428	10.5	<0.80	280	Lab Test
13.3.08		Nil	3500	7.00	920					10	1.00		Field Test Kit
13.3.08		Nil	3178	7.64	900	184	105	1320	360	50.44	<0.85	290	Lab Test
26.3.08		Nil	3600	7.00	1020			1590		Nil	1.00		Field Test Kit

8.4 Remediation of Heavy Metals is the most advanced feature of BIOSANITIZER. Arsenic contamination is affecting large areas in UP, Bihar and West Bengal. Cancer and skin problems are known to arise due to Arsenic. Two samples were tested using BIOSANITIZER by a reputed NGO in Kolkata and the results are presented in Table 5.

BIOSANITIZER treatment requires some carbon that can come from COD. In water that has no food, BIOSANITIZER needs an access to air. This is why the results were better when the water sample was exposed to air, during the treatment.

8.5 Enhancement of Membrane Technologies: Reverse osmosis is used to remove the inorganic pollutants. Ultrafiltration is useful in removing the organic load, bacteria and viruses. There is no single process available that can solve both organic as well as inorganic pollution problems, also they cannot separate useful from the harmful and even the useful component gets disposed of. These technologies, however, are getting popular because they can offer a compact ‘end-of-pipeline’ solution.

BIOSANITIZER has been successfully used to enhance their performance and also to remove their negative aspect. They produce a waste stream that needs to be further treated and being more concentrated, the treatment becomes more difficult.

If BIOSANITIZER is FIRST used to make the whole stream eco-friendly, we also get two eco-friendly streams. Both the streams, thus, get used for different purposes and there is no need of disposing the reject.

It is also found that such a BIOSANITIZER-pretreatment is able to increase the flux through the membranes by 30-50% and also reduce the membrane choking/maintenance problems.

8.6 Enhancement of Phytoremediation: Phytoremediation involves using natural plant root membranes, to absorb the inorganic molecules that are needed for the plant growth. In this technology, the reject stream is actually used creatively for the activity of plants that produce organics(food, fuel, fertilizer, fiber, herbal medicines, timber, etc.) and oxygen for us, also trapping the CO2 from the air.

BIOSANITIZER-pretreatment allows us to grow any plant of our choice. This is important point because each plant can operate only if the water (or wastewater) quality is in the band of that plant. Hence one has to select the plant species very carefully; this could be a reason why such a simple natural Ecotechnology has not caught up in a big way.

Growing a plant of our choice is very important because then it ensures sustainable harvesting of the plant produce. This is necessary to keep the system in active phase.

Drinking water needs to have high standards of quality. The availability to all is also important. BIOSANITIZER Ecotechnology can help us achieve both the objectives.

BIOSANITIZER-treatment should be the first action because it converts all the pollutants into resources; the useful components are also conserved. There is no production of a reject stream during the water treatment if BIOSANITIZER is used.

Recovery of dilute stream provides the drinking water of right quality. This can be through use of artificial membranes or simply, by using the plant root membranes (phytoremediation). Choice is ours, but the natural root membranes need no repairs, maintenance and replacement hassles and also trap the greenhouse gases, to produce food-fuel-fiber-fertilizer, etc. for us..