Partner Institutes
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| Institute for Materials Research and Innovation, University of Bolton | The Textile Institute of Pakistan |
Project brief:
Geosynthetics are a range of man-made materials used to improve the quality of soil that have revolutionised civil engineering works. Their high durability makes them ideal for use in construction works and in lining water bodies to remove contamination.
The World Bank has identified Pakistan as heading towards a major water crisis. A majority of the population does not have access to clean drinking water and as a result, about 40% of the reported diseases in Pakistan are water-borne.
Most of the country’s rural population depend on open water sources for everyday domestic use. These include canals, rivers and wells, all of which are at a high risk of being contaminated.
The INSPIRE partnership between the Textile Institute of Pakistan and the University of Bolton aims to improve the availability of clean drinking water by removing contamination from wells. The partnership will assess the use of an innovative water purification scheme based on geosynthetic materials technology.
The partnership plans to use geotextiles, one of the many types of geosynthetic materials, to develop a filtration system to clean well water through a set up that employs lining technology. A teabag best illustrates how this will work: just like the tealeaves are contained within the bag, the lining will hold the soil particles in place while allowing water to flow freely through it.Apart from physical retention, the material developed would also employ chemical purification to remove dissolved ions such as calcium, magnesium etc.
There are many benefits of this project. Since international bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency are working towards solutions that can be applied to common problems globally, the research can be marketed at an international forum.
It will also have a significant economic impact by injecting life into Pakistan’s sagging textile sector, allowing textile mills to expand their product portfolio to include these high value added but easy-to-manufacture products.
Most importantly, it has the potential to change the life of Pakistan’s rural population, giving them the opportunity to live in a disease-free and productive environment.
Lessons learnt:
- The most important lessons learned from the project so far, that have revised the scope and design of the experiment to a certain extent, are:
- Research indicates that it is not only the rural population that relies on open water sources for drinking or potable purposes. A large majority of areas in urban Karachi rely on wells for drinking purposes. Though they do resort to treatment processes such as chlorination or boiling, they are not aware or concerned about the chemical impurities that may be present in well water. Hence, the scope of the project that originally focused on rural areas can now be extended to include some urban areas of Karachi as well.
- The original aim of the project was to line the wells with an active geosynthetic material for in-situ water purification. Whilst reviewing the literature on existing technologies, this has been revised to "pump and treat" or ex-situ method. The latter method is easy to implement and is less prone to be affected by such factors as changes in aquifer conditions, geomorphic variations etc.
Challenges faced:
- The first challenge is related to the nature of research itself. Water problems in Pakistan are myriad and have many dimensions. In the context of well water itself, apart from the issue of water contaminated for natural reasons, there are associated problems like indiscriminate digging of wells (abstraction), agricultural and industrial practises that continue to contaminate groundwater, and the social irresponsibility of people who do not minimise the wastage of water. The issue of well water treatment, that is the subject of the project, cannot itself be a sustainable solution, unless it is viewed and dealt with the other associated problems in hand.
- Another challenge is to have an accurate idea of the number of people or households in Karachi that rely on well water for potable purposes. The latest census data available on the subject dates back to 1998, which is not reliable. A national census was due in 2011 but has been delayed for political reasons.
The impact/benefits of the project:
While the masses in Pakistan are generally aware of the microbiological contamination of open water sources and its treatment methods such as boiling and chlorination, there is less awareness about the chemical impurities such as excess of magnesium and calcium or other toxic ions. The use of ion exchange fibrous material aims to bring this nature of contamination and its associated health hazards into the limelight. The masses would greatly benefit through use of IXT (ion exchange textiles); and since the materials are regenerative in nature, the solution would be cost-effective.
Key contacts:
Dr. Tahir Shah, University of Bolton
T.H.Shah@bolton.ac.uk, www.bolton.ac.uk/
Mr. Tariq Ikram, Textile Institute of Pakistan
Tariq.ikram@tip.edu.pk, www.tip.edu.pk
