Testing, monitoring and controlling the water quality parameters are the biggest challenges. A lot of multinational companies are making their way to India to encash the opportunity available in Indian market.

– Kondiba Shivaji Metkari, Inside Sales Manager, Hanna Equipments (India) Pvt. Ltd.

 Access to safe drinking water is a basic human need. Unfortunately in India many people still lack reliable access to this precious resource. Kondiba Shivaji Metkari shares his views about the current scenario in water sector and also informs regarding the innovative products offered by Hanna Instruments.

Controlling water pollution
Water pollution has been one of the most important environmental concerns for India. Its largest source being the untreated sewage discharge, hence the government of India has set strict guidelines for all the manufacturing companies when it comes to sewage discharge. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 restricts discharges of pollutants to water bodies and created Central and State Pollution Control Boards with authority to set standards and enforce water pollution rules. For instance a dye manufacturing company has several restrictions for disposal in land, marine, and irrigation land. They have to control certain parameters like pH, COD, BOD, copper, chromium, and magnesium etc., before discharging. The pH limit is in between 6.0 to 8.5 for land and 5.5 to 9.0 for irrigation land. As in case of COD the limit is 250 ppm (mg/l).

Primary water quality criteria for drinking include:
• Total coliforms organism MPN/100ml: 50 or less
• pH: between 6.5 and 8.5
• Dissolved oxygen: 6mg/l or more
• Biochemical oxygen demand for 5 days at 20 C: 2mg/l or less.

With its latest, innovative and technologically updated instruments Hanna Instruments helps measure all the critical water quality parameter. It has more than 3,000 products in our portfolio with which we help industries to ascertain what’s in their water.

“Our instruments are not only suited for lab analysis, but also for field procedure and online water monitoring. We are committed to provide quality instruments at affordable price to Indian customers,” says Mr Metkari. “Our philosophy, “to be able to supply customers around the world with practical affordable solutions for their testing needs” has always been the reason for our existence.”

Need of having alternate water sources
With increasing water pollution, non-availability of safe and clean drinking water has been a longstanding problem. The current government’s plan to rejuvenate Ganga seems to be a good initiative. Water is the basis for all the agricultural and manufacturing activities, although the criteria of clean water are different in these contexts. India has a limited resource of fresh water, and with the pace that we are moving forward we cannot completely depend on these resources. This situation of water crisis has led to develop alternative source of water, recycling being the major one. Reusing and recycling water can ease the pressure on water resources and the environment. There are various processes available and some of them like desalination are a costly affair.

“Testing, monitoring and controlling the water quality parameters is the biggest challenge. Lot of multinational companies are making their way to India to encash the opportunity available in Indian market,” observes Mr Metkari.

In coming years the country may witness more water treatment plants, desalination plants and other alternatives to recycle water. Instrument manufacturers, especially water testing instrument companies play a vital role in the process of water recycling.

Solutions offered
Hanna is one of the world’s biggest brands manufacturing laboratory, process and field instruments for water quality testing. Its strength lies in its product range. The company offers more than 3,000 products and our R&D team continuously strive to develop new techniques that simplify the testing procedures. It has products for testing major water parameters, parameters like pH, conductivity, turbidity, TDS, ammonia, chlorine, COD/BOD, dissolved oxygen and many more.

Apart from water testing it is supplying instruments for agriculture, aquaculture, environmental, food, dairy, beverage and for other industry. It attempts to provide new innovative products at very affordable cost to its customers. The company takes pride in being one of the world’s leaders in innovation of analytical instrumentation.

“We have revolutionised the world of testing by introducing the world’s first pocket pH tester. We have developed application based mini titration system for food, wine, water and dairy industry. We offer mini titration system to our customers who don’t wish to purchase the complete titration system for just one application,” informs Mr Metkari.

New products by Hanna
Keeping in view the Indian market, the company has introduced tablet size, slimmest multi parameter named Edge which is suitable for laboratory as well as field applications. It can measure pH, conductivity, TDS, dissolved oxygen and salinity. The instrument is a perfect fit for several industries such as wine, wastewater, drinking water, pharmaceutical, food and many more. This instrument has very good features and it is available in affordable cost for Indian customers. The company has plans to upgrade the same product by introducing few new electrodes that can be specifically used for food testing application. It also intends to come out with ‘Karl Fisher CoulometricTitrator System’ which will measure moisture content from 1 ppm to 5 per cent.

“At Pittcon 2014 Exhibition in USA, Hanna Instrument has introduced the ‘HALO’ -world’s first Bluetooth Smart pH electrode. It is high quality, glass refillable electrode which will be available with iPad Hanna lab app for reading and recording data, this electrode will be made available to Indian customers very soon,” informs Mr Metkari.

For customers
According to Mr Metkari, any customer who is looking to purchase a water testing instrument must consider the below points:
• Actual application: drinking water, wastewater or sea water analysis
• Kind of instrument: portable, laboratory bench, online (process) or for field application
• Required measurement range, Accuracy
• Determine whether multi parameter or single parameter is needed
• Are the results required for audit purpose? (Applicable for data transfers)
• Interferences: What other ions, organics or metals are present in your sample.

For process instruments
• Select proper instrument according to installation and application type. You can choose wall mount, panel mount, transmitter or combine instrument with dosing pump
• Output can be an important feature. Option can be analog (e.g. mA, volt) or digital (e.g. RS485, RS232). It would be useful if you want to transfer, record readings or control valve
• Set point facility: If you want to control the parameters then it is most important things. For example: anyone wants to control pH between 6 to 7 pH then he should buy two set point facility instrument. 

These points answer the basic information about the usage. There are other important questions that follow. However, to ensure a right purchase, it’s advisable to start with these points.