Raw Water Filtration: Some Technical Tips For Major Users

Water is the prime resource which concerns every one. It is one natural resource which every one think to much but understand little. Its value is realized when it is not available as required or available in a manner not suitable for the intended use. Water becomes a concern only when it creates a problem.

I do not wish to write more about the politics and philosophy of water here. In this blog I wish to present some technical aspects of water filtration.

Water in its chemical form H2O is never available naturally in its purest form. As it is a universal solvent or cleaning agent water available in nature contains many other organic and inorganic material in varying concentrations. These impurities could be in the form of dissolved solids or gases, collodidal solids, liquids or gases or suspended solids, gases or liquids.

Impurities in water get into it from various sources when it gets in contact with earth or other contaminations either naturally or through the activities of people. The natural process of purification and distribution of water takes place on a perpetual manner in the form of natural evaporation and condensation. The rain distributed water from the land areas either percolates down to underground water bodies or surface water bodies which in turn forms the natural fresh raw water. Fresh water contains much lower levels of dissolved solids in the form of salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, etc where as sea water contains a much higher level of these dissolved solids.

Fresh water from rivers and ponds on the other hand contains a higher level of suspended and colloidal solids which reduces its clarity.

The best and simple way to make water relatively free of suspended and colloidal solids and to make it suitable for most industrial and domestic consumption is to filter it appropriately.

Filtration of water is one of the main treatment processes in any industrial or municipal water treatment facility. The most common water filtration method is the sand bed filtration. However, there are various types of designs of  sand filtration systems and equipment. Rapid Sand Gravity filtration and Pressure Sand Filtration are two very common types of water filtration technology.

Unfortunately very few people concerned with the decisions regarding the selection and implementation of a water treatment facility understand the relative advantages and disadvantages of various water treatment design arrangements. This one factor often makes a water treatement plant facility to costs much more with regard to its initial investment costs and subsequent operation and maintenance costs.

Conventional gravity sand filtration and pressure sand filtration systems are batch operating process units. The filters after operating for a certain length of time in filtration mode need to be taken out of filtration service to clean the filter beds from the accumulated suspended impurities it filtered out from the water. The cleaning is often effected by expanding the sand bed using a heavy reverse water flow using some of the filtered water. In water treatment, this process is called the filter backwash mode.

These operations require a number of heavy sized valves to be operated either manually or electrically. The number of valves and their sequencing often become a complex operation prone to much supervision and frequent maintenance. Moreover, this enhances the cost of installation and upkeep of the filtration system. Manpower and electric power become essential requirements for a water filtration plant making water filtration a costly affair for the owner of the treatment facility.

It is here that the 'Automatic Valveless Gravity Sand Filters' AVGSF or AVGF or VAG filters play an important role. This wonderful filter design was patented some decades ago in the US by the pioneering water treatment company called 'Permutit'.

Considering the relative advantages of this design, this water filter should have become the standard for water filtration. However for various reasons it has not. Unfortunately very few people have used this technology advantageously. AVGF filters do not require any man power or electricity for its operation or back wash. It is completely and fully automatic without the use of valves or costly programmable logic controllers for its automation.

I had adopted this technology for large industrial and drinking water treatment plant purposes some decades ago as a plant designer. Those plants are smoothly running all these years without much problems.

The following gives a typical constructional feature of a VAG filter for water treatment:

It is a wonderful design concept. Though simple, it has certain very important technological design details which needs special attention.

A few companies are offering filters designed on this concept. They are:

1. M/s Siemens

2. M/s Otoklin

3. M/s Ion Exchange India

Water filtration using this technology would be of great advantage for small and medium scale drinking water treatment plants of municipalities as well as for industries that operate closed loop cooling water circulation systems. In the latter, addition of a filtration unit adopting the VAG technology to continuously filter suspended impurities from about 10% of the circulation water would greatly improve the performances of the heat transfer process equipment and enhance their life. 

Engineers and technologists who are connected to water treatment may make use of this technology so that the water treatment facilities they design would be cost effective and simple in operation and maintenance.  

Institutionalized Christianity : Experiences that Sadden Me !

I feel happy to declare that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. But at the same time I am not so sure to say whether I feel happy to be member of an Institutionalized Christian Church of India which proclaims to uphold the religion established after the name of Jesus Christ.

I belong to a Christian Church denomination now well established with its roots in the south Indian state of Kerala. It is called the Mar Thoma  Syrian Church of Malabar . In Malayalam language it is commonly known as the Malankara Marthoma Suriyani  Sabha ( മലങ്കര മാര്‍ത്തോമ സുറിയാനി സഭ ) In Malayalam language of Kerala, Malankara means Malabar, Suriyani means Syrian , Marthoma means Saint Thomas and Sabha means Church.

No one clearly knows the roots of the Christians traditions in Kerala. Elite Kerala Christians prefer to call themselves as descendants of the higher caste brahmins whom apostle Saint Thomas himself got converted to Christianity some two thousand years ago. In a way they still prefer to project their caste superiority in the caste driven Indian society. There are no authentic historical evidences that prove the visit of apostle Saint Thomas to reach Kodungallore in Kerala coast by sea route to convert the seven and a half brahmin families to Christianity and to proceed to the east coast of India to be killed by Hindu zealots somewhere near Chennai. It could be true that during the Holy war between the Christians and the Muslims for control of the Holy city of Jerusalem over a millennium ago, some non Muslim Persians and Christian Syrians had to flee their home countries to take refuge in Indian coasts. The Syrian Christian culture got established in Kerala from the descendants of these refugees.

The traditional Christians of Kerala had relations with the orthodox church of Antioch in the Middle East. After the arrival of the Europeans in India  Catholicism and its after effects also made its impact on the Christian traditions and cultures of India. As it stands today, Kerala too has its share of Christian churches. Divisions in Christianity exist on account of cultural and canonical differences.

Any organization, whether it is social, political or religious, would tend to become bureaucratic with no compassion to its common members when affluence and influence begin to make it leadership forget its values and principles.

Marthoma church of Kerala is no exception.  

My father, late Shri T. M. Mathew, was a Hindi language teacher of the Mar Thoma High School at Pathanamthitta, Kerala during the period 1952-1982. This school happened to be one of the oldest educational ventures of the Mar Thoma Church in Kerala managed by a corporate body under the church. I remember my father, a regular church goer, abruptly stopped going to the church for many years later. However, he used to give all the dues that are payable to the church without fail and also never discouraged any one at home from going to the church. He never elaborated the reasons why he stopped attending the church. But I guess, he became disillusioned of the church leaders whom he later realized as not so true disciples of Jesus Christ, but as clever opportunists who promoted nepotism within the Church organizations.

I remember him telling later in his life about the necessity of being with the church whether you like it or not. In India, the political leadership that determines the fate of the country are bound to appease the heads of various religious groups because the former are not sure of the actual mass appeal of these religious leaders. Just as the political parties, the religious groups also depend on the muscle power of some select group of followers who are at their disposal to make disturbances in the society whenever certain things are not in the liking of their respective leaders. Due to this, no political party is in a position to make any laws which are for the common good of the citizens of India regardless of their religious affiliations.

One of the very important function that the religions handle in India is the disposal of the dead. Indian governments have little to do in this aspect. If some one dies in an Indian home, the dead body is at the mercy of the religious groups. The family members have no option other than to approach their religious group for disposing the body. Whether the dead man believed in any religion or not, he has to undergo a religious rite as opted by his family members for his body to get buried or cremated. The Indian governments though constitutionally declare themselves as secular so far have not made any governmental arrangements for disposal of dead bodies, except perhaps for their top leaders. In India a dead body has to have a religion. No options other than that. This one factor forces the people of India to be  affiliated to some religious sect of some influence and standing whether they actually like it or not. In practice, the governments in India, excepting some major city administrations, have so far not seriously made any provisions for the people of India to honourably dispose their dead without taking the help of some religious sects.

This is a great bargain for the religious groups. Even the private hospitals in India, of late, have begun to extract money from the relatives and family members of deceased citizens, taking advantage of their helplessness.

Being in some part of the country and if you happen to be not associated with any institutionalized religious group you are likely to have a hellish experience in India if some one near to you unfortunately ceases to be a living person any more.

The fellowship and the friendship that are part of the community life or social life is not fully up to your choice in India. There are religious group diktats, whether written or unwritten, attached. These realities are not often discernible to the public directly. Only the affected persons go through the pains.

Christians traditionally bury their dead. There are no reasons why they should not cremate their dead like the majority Hindu Indians. Burial of the dead means some space in the ground to place the dead body. This space is later converted to a permanent tomb site by construction of a tomb structure by spending good amounts of money.

In olden times space was not a problem. Most of the churches in Kerala have cemeteries attached to their respective parishes. But now, the soil in these cemeteries have become concentrated with the decaying remains of dead bodies. The soil and the underground water are getting polluted. Hues and cries here and there rise. But the governments in India are silent. Pollution and environment are important for them for making issues and moneys. But in this case, the issue is ticklish. They do not want to get their nose into the exclusive domains of the religious groups even when it affects the citizens adversely. No thoughts, no discussions, no solutions and no future plans !

In such a scenario, getting a small piece of land allotted in the existing cemeteries is a big achievement for the living members of the church, whether they are Marthomites or any other. The parish committees charges hefty sums of money for this facility. Many times, money and high recommendations are all necessary.

For all other requirements, citizens can some how go ahead without the religions, except for the one I explained above. And that is well understood by the religious heads. They use it as their trump card to control and chastise their members. Does it have the blessing of the Indian government and the political leaderships ? The answer is yes and no both !

This is one area where the Christian majority nations like the USA and the Europe has shown their wisdom and concern for the people. None of these nations have this kind of a situation as that is existing in India. In those countries, the governments have freed the people from the clutches of the institutionalized churches by making governmental arrangements as dependable alternatives. Ofcourse they have evolved through many trials and tribulations over many centuries.

For those familiar with the Malayalam language can read another blog highlighting the issues that plague the present day Marthoma Church. [Read it Here !]

Being a Marthomite Christian, having maintained a silent attachment to the church since my childhood, some experiences really make me sad. I do not want to specify any of those personal experiences. But only wish that this Indian church leaders and influential members would not transform it to the grade of the Russian Orthodox Church during the days of the Tsars. I earnestly wish that each and every marthomite would behave as if 'lighted to lighten' and work as true disciples of Jesus Christ.

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Why Corruption Cannot Be Eradicated in Democratic India Now ?

Perhaps you know what is meant by this wise saying :

Necessity is the mother of invention.

If you observe human history, it is easy to find that this is true. Human beings use their brains when confronted with some essential requirements which they feel as important for their survival and come out with their own unique techniques of survival to circumvent the problem they face.

In India they faced such a problem way back in the first half of the 20th century.

They were given the name Indians because they belonged to a mixed race comprising of evolving races identified by anthropologists as Dravidians, Aryans, Mongoloids, indegenous tribals and their crossbreeds living in the Indian peninsula or sub-continent. The majority of them were illiterate and perhaps never knew they were Indians because that was the name given to them by non-Indian scientists and historians.

Again there was no India except in the documents of the British empire as it was the latter which used to refer the sub continent in their administrative control as India.

But for the people who lived in the sub continental regions knew pretty nothing about much of the others who shared their land in other places. They identified themselves with the caste titles and identified the others based on their castes or religions or the local royals who ruled them.

The Europeans traders slowly established their influences over the local rulers and by the nineteenth century, the British became the prominent European presence in the sub continent establishing their rule over most of it.

The British never had to fight a serious war with the Indian local royals to take control of their territories, though they had to do such things with local war lords such as Hyder Ali and his son Tippu in the South. The north, the east and the south upto the Deccan were remnants of the disintegrating Mughal empire ruled by the cheiftains of the Mughals who retained their powers on the unquestioning populace with the might of their rude and crude officials. The latter over the years have learnt that the majority Indians are a perpetually scared lot who could be controlled easily by the weilding  the lathis (canes) or by shouting some galis (foul language) They also knew to retain their position and power by showing extreme loyalty to their higher ups.

The British traders learnt the working of the hierarchy that worked in India. On the top of these various hierarchies that penetrated India of that time were the local kings who were pampered by their coteries of officials and their subordinate coteries. The majority people simply existed without ever questioning the system that ruled over them. They were always fearful of those wielding the lathis (or the single barrel guns) and yelled galis at all opportunistic occassions.

The top man was not essentially a cunning tyrant who was feared by all, but a lazy pleasure loving royal pampered by the coterie below. So it was easy for the British trading bosses to get closer to these rulers and establish their influencing control over them in a few decades of time eventually integrating the controls to establish the British rule over the Indian sub continent.

The Indian coteries that were around the local royals soon migrated to surround the British officials. Those who wish to be in this circle soon began to learn the english language and the systems that facilitated entry into the British coterie system.

Through that learning those Indians involved in it learnt about the world and the democratic way of getting power. It was easy for them to realize that in a country of poor illiterate and fearful people it was very easy to get into powerful positions using the new technique of democracy.

It was the golden opportunity for the non-royals to get those traditional royals replaced . No bloodshed, no coup, but the democratic way of getting the support of their 'country cousins' in the form of votes was enough to accomplish it.

Thus emerged the political class of India, a very distiguished mixture of ambitious people who wanted to occupy the seats of power and enjoy life just their local royals had been doing earlier.

What was required was to know the trick of getting the 'votes' during the elections to their favour from their unfortunate and ignorant country cousins.

They knew the weakness of their ignorant country cousins. They were a fearful people and never applied their own minds to think rationally. Due to fear they often chose to go with the majority. Whatever appears as the majority decision to them that was their decision. If the majority around them praised Mr X, they too praised Mr.X.

If the majority talked about Cricket, they too talked about Cricket and became fans of those Cricketers.

It was easy to manipulate their minds by eloquence even though such eloquence actually meant nothing.

Advertizement gimmicks have the greatest impact on these country cousins always.

What was required to be in power was to get the support of this pliable public always.

For that there should be always a majority who retained their position as pliable public.

There should be enough money in the hands of those getting into the political class status for maintaining that status by by perpetual manipulation of the pliable public.

It was pure necessity.

Necessity imposed by the new democratic system of India.

It was quite a learning for them to realize that both these requirements can be easily met by using their power.

Power can be used to extract money from the pliable public and also keep the pliable public in that status as long as they wanted.

No internal threats, no external threats.

Are they fools to do something that would destabilize the beautiful system that evolved in a few decades after the British fellows and the traditional local royals got displaced ? 

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]