Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati and Bombay in collaboration with European universities are working towards building a low-cost technology to check the quality of potable and other water in India.
The LOTUS Indo-European project, an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and the European Commission, is aimed at providing solutions for issues related to the quality of water supplied across Indian households and elsewhere.
A core element of the LOTUS project is a novel water quality sensor that builds on previous work done at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France.
The core of the LOTUS sensor is a chip with carbon nanotube-based sensing elements that are capable of measuring multiple quality parameters such as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Potential of Hydrogen (pH), chlorine, and arsenic.
The components of the sensor system include a software that enables water quality monitoring and safe water supply in the piped water network and tanker supply systems.