New Delhi: The Centre launched a study earlier this month to evaluate existing and emerging technologies for removing fluoride from drinking water, part of a broader effort to update an over 30-year-old standard.
A technical committee review has flagged the existing BIS standard for drinking water as outdated, noting it does not adequately reflect newer technologies or the challenges seen in real-world use.
The review signals a shift in policy focus—from just expanding tap water access to ensuring the water supplied is safe to drink. Mint explains the development.
What is driving the rethink?
Fluoride contamination remains a structural issue in India, particularly in groundwater-dependent regions. Unlike bacterial contamination, which can be addressed through filtration and disinfection, fluoride is geogenic—naturally present in aquifers—making it harder to eliminate without targeted treatment.
The scale is significant: more than 200 districts across at least 20 states report fluoride levels above the permissible 1.5 mg per litre. Estimates suggest 60–70 million people are at risk, with many already affected by fluorosis, a condition that can lead to irreversible skeletal damage over time.
This makes fluoride contamination a long-term public health concern, particularly in rural areas where dependence on untreated groundwater remains high.
Why are current solutions not enough?
India’s fluoride mitigation strategy has largely centred on the Nalgonda technique, a low-cost chemical treatment method deployed at the community level. Its effectiveness, however, has been uneven, often depending on accurate dosing, maintenance and safe sludge disposal.
Newer technologies such as electrocoagulation, activated alumina filtration, and membrane-based systems, such as reverse osmosis, offer higher efficiency in controlled settings but also pose challenges, including higher costs, energy requirements, and operational complexity.
The lack of a clear, updated framework to evaluate and standardize these technologies has created a fragmented landscape, where adoption is often ad hoc and not always suited to local conditions. This is the gap the current study aims to address by comparing technologies across performance, cost, and scalability.
The implementation challenge
While standards exist on paper, their translation into outcomes on the ground remains uneven. The BIS has specified permissible fluoride limits, but compliance depends on state agencies and local bodies responsible for running water treatment systems.
Failures are less about technology gaps and more about weak monitoring, poor maintenance and limited technical capacity at the local level. Community systems, in particular, face irregular operations and a shortage of skilled operators.
This disconnect between standard-setting and implementation has led to water quality risks persisting despite policy interventions.
What will the study change?
The ongoing study will map contamination patterns and assess treatment systems across geographies, focusing on real-world performance rather than theoretical efficiency.
Its findings are expected to help bring a revised BIS standard that could expand the range of approved technologies and introduce operational guidelines for different conditions.
A shift from access to quality?
The timing of this exercise is significant. Under the government’s Jal Jeevan Mission, rural tap water coverage has expanded from 16.7% of households in 2019 to over 81% as of early 2026. As infrastructure gaps narrow, the policy focus is beginning to shift towards ensuring that supplied water meets safety standards.
Updating fluoride standards is part of that transition, but outcomes will depend on aligning technology and policy with local capacity and sustained oversight.