QUESTION
Borewell contamination in Chennai, TN : Consultant needed for suggesting treatment options,Test report attached.

I stay in 100 feet road, Selaiyur, Chennai. We have recently moved into a newly constructed apartment. We have 4 apartments in our building. We are recently experiencing problems with water. We moved in here in the first week of April 2008. Till July 2008, there were no problems. Water was good, clear. Now, the water is foaming and smells bad. Two fresh borewells were dug. One around 25 feet away from the old one but no water till 200 feet. The second borewell was dug very near (within around 5-10 feet) the old borewell, water came but again foaming and smelling. Recently the problem has started in good number of houses in this area. The test report of a sample of water is as below.

SrParameterUnitsResultsRef Method
1pH-6.47IS:3025/P11/2002
2TurbidityNTU102IS:3025/P14/2002
3Total suspended solidsmg/l480IS:3025/P17/2002
4Total dissolved solidsmg/l860IS:3025/P16/2002
5Chlorides (as Cl)mg/l152IS:3025/P32/2003
6Sulphates (as SO4)mg/l53IS:3025/P24/2003
7Calcium (as Ca)mg/l77IS:3025/P40/2003
8Magnesium (as Mg)mg/l15IS:3025/P46/2003
9Total Hardness (as CaCO3)mg/l254IS:3025/P21/2002
10p-Alkalinity (as CaCO3)mg/lNilIS:3025/P23/2003
11Total Alkalinity (as CaCO3)mg/l365IS:3025/P23/2003
12Iron (as Fe)mg/l11.70IS:3025/P53/2003


What could be the possible solutions:

1. Can we use the same water, through some treatment. Given that there is no other option for another source in the same plot. We are in any case using canned water for drinking and cooking purposes, so we are looking at the ground water only for washing, flush and bathing purposes.

2. Reverse osmosis plants seem to be costly. Is there any other option?

3. Are there any consultants who can be help us out?

Srirama Nataraj
sriram@grcconsultants.net

by
15 October 2008