Silchar, Jan. 14: The Assam Central University at Dargakona has launched an extensive campaign to popularise the use of solar-ray treated water for drinking in south Assam, Mizoram and Meghalaya. The ecology department of the university, in collaboration with two NGOs in Nepal and South Africa, had been selected by the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Sciences and Technology to carry out the project. The Swiss institute and the ecology department have signed an MoU in this regard.
The institute has launched similar projects in Columbia, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Uzbekisthan. Aveek Gupta, head of the ecology department, today told The Telegraph that the UV-A content in solar rays destroy bacteria, particularly faceal coliform that causes diarrhoea.
He said his department had recently carried out a survey on unfiltered water, which the villagers in the south Assam districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts generally drink. The research team had concluded that in most cases the water was thick with bacteria.
By storing water in a plastic bottle and exposing it to the sun for six hours destroys the bacteria, he said. “As the project does not involve any expenditure, it will be a bonanza for the people south Assam districts, where 46 per cent of the population is prone to stomach ailments caused by water-borne bacteria,” he said.
Gupta said the Swiss federal agency would grant Rs 8 crore for the project.