Raqxa - ‘Solar Water Purifier with Integrated Storage and Automatic Supply' is the idea of Vemula Lakshmimnarayana(Ph: 9848391922) from Tadipatri town of Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India.This is one among the 52 projects shortlisted for the ‘India Innovation Initiative-- i3 National Fair'.
Raqxa competed with 850 entries from all over India, and what makes it special is the innovator's non-technical educational background. For Mr. Lakshmimnarayana, a postgraduate in literature, innovation has been the second nature and Raqxa, the acme of it. He earlier designed a perpetual calendar, a rat-trap, and a solar water heating system.
Raqxa in fact uses the SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection) treatment approved by the World Health Organisation for affordable safe drinking water in small quantities by households. The method aims to treat water through solar radiation and involves filling water in Pet bottles and exposing them to the sun for five hours on a bright day or two days under cloudy sky.
In his device, Lakshminarayana used a number of glass purification cells to contain water for exposure upto 20 hours.
These will be fixed to a solar panel and kept at a suitable angle on the terrace. Untreated water will be pumped up from a water tank/can in the house, kept at a level higher than the discharge unit from where the treated water can be drawn. The whole system runs with gravitational pull and does not use power to build pressure, asserts Mr. Lakshminarayana.
Through check valves, he also made sure that the untreated water does not get mixed up with the treated water in the cells when water is drawn for consumption. The device is long-lasting, environment-friendly and requires zero maintenance, he says. He is on the lookout for patrons who can fund the commercial production without profit motive.
Excerpts from Remedy for water contamination by Swathi.V
