Water quality dips dangerously in parts of Bengaluru

The Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in water consumed in parts of Bengaluru far exceeds the acceptable maximum of 250-300 parts per million (PPM) per litre.

A study arranged by DrinkPrime, a subscription-based service for water purifiers, shows that the TDS was as high as 1,236 PPM in Electronics City in water samples tested between January and May this year.

TDS refers to the amount of organic and inorganic material dissolved in a given volume of water. The material include metals, salts, ions and minerals.

Drinking water with TDS levels below or above permissible limits can be hazardous to health causing health problems such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, lung irritation and more.

The water quality analysis found that the TDS ranged between 68 and 1,236 PPM in Electronics City, between 142 and 646 PPM in HSR Layout, and between 192 and 1,002 PPM in Whitefield.

The areas chosen for the analysis also had high levels of water hardness. The hardness is determined by the milligrams of calcium carbonate per litre and is reported in PPM. In general, water with less than 60 PPM can be considered soft, water with 60-120 PPM moderately hard, and water with greater than 120 PPM hard.

In Electronics City, the hardness level ranged from 8 PPM and 580 PPM in water samples tested during the first five months of the year. In HSR Layout, the range was between 68 and 276 PPM. The hardness levels in Whitefield were in the range of 96 to 492 PPM.

DrinkPrime applied data sourced through its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled customised water purifiers. “When our technicians visit our subscribers, they check the TDS levels of input and output water, too,” an official explained.

Water samples, collected in designated bottles, are labelled and sent to a private laboratory in Bengaluru. The samples are tested for 20 parameters.

“Once we got onboard about 1,000 subscribers on our traditional one-size-fits-all water purifier model, we realised that there were a few issues they faced — water taste and hardness. It is when we dug deeper into the challenge, that it struck us — input water qualities vary from one area to another,” recalls Vijender Reddy Muthyala, Co-founder and CEO of DrinkPrime.