Up-gradation of Chemical Laboratories in CGWB

By

DR S K SRIVASTAVA

Senior Chemist

Ground water quality is an important issue for development and management of the resource. Quality is by and large suitable for various uses. Localized occurrences of various geogenic contaminants (naturally occurring) like salinity, fluoride, arsenic, and iron have been observed in several parts. Anthropogenic (man‐made) contaminations generating from industrial waste, landfills, agriculture fields,and sewage are also a serious concerns in many areas in the country. With the taking up of different projects and strengthening of the ground water monitoring network, the workload of analyzing water samples for various parameters (also associated with pollution, contamination of ground water due to chemicals, pesticides etc) is anticipating to grow many‐fold because of studies being taken up on micro‐scale.

Capacity Building of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has recommended that “There is a need for significant expansion in the number of parameters analyzed as CGWB changes its focus to more interpretative applied research”. The report further mentions that “This expansion should include water isotopes useful in tracing water sources, radioisotopes such as tritium and carbon‐14used to age date water, a broader suite of elements (ICP typically analyzes about 2 dozen), and organic chemicals including additional pesticides but especially common industrial solvents (volatile organic compounds) that may present an even greater threat than pesticides to groundwater contamination.

However, that expansion should only occur if and when hydro-chemists with education and (or) experience in the interpretation of these newer data are hired.” Also it is mentioned that “if CGWB upgrades analytical capabilities to international standards, the following considerations should be completed before deciding what laboratory equipment to purchase:

·  The need and use that will be made of the data and the availability of hydro-chemists with the specialized experience to interpret the new types of data that are generated.

·  The availability of analytical chemists with suitable education/training to use the new

kinds of instruments.”The report has also recommended that “CGWB should consider increasing the number of geochemists on staff for data analysis and research efforts”.

Considering the above it is proposed to upgrade the existing Regional Chemical Laboratories of C G W B in India and also setting up of one at RGI and four Zonal (North, South, East and West) State of Art Ground Water Research Laboratories for various Research and Development work / Projects related to the water contamination / removal techniques etc. the Regional Chemical Laboratories should be in each State Capital.

In Zonal Water Research Laboratory the facility of conducting all major cations and anions including heavy metals, bacteriological examination of water samples, isotopes, pesticide residues, rapid in-situ (on the spot)analysis and R & D studies.

Major Instrument requirement in Zonal Ground Water Research Laboratory

PROPOSAL OF INSTRUMENTS REQUIRED
Name of the Equipment / Make / Qty / Tentative cost for each in Rs. / Remarks
Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer / Shimadzu / Perkin Elmer / GBC / 1 / 40 Lakhs / For Trace/Heavy metal analysis
ICP-MS / PerkinElmer / Varian / Thermo Fischer / 1 / 1.20 crores / For analysis of all elements,speciation of certain metals such as Chromium, iron & Arsenic
GC-MS / Shimadzu / Perkin Elmer / 1 / 40 Lakhs / For Pesticide Residue Analysis
TOC analyser / Shimadzu / any International Brand / 2 / 25 Lakh / For the analysis of organic pollution
Ion Chromatograph / Any International Brand / 1 / 2 Lakhs / For Analysis of cation & anion with speciation of ions
Analytical Balance / Metler / Soritorius / 4 / 2 Lakhs / For Weighing
P C Based UV-VIS Spectrophotometer / Shimadzu / any International Brand / 2 / 5-8 Lakhs / For the analysis of non metal ions like nitrate, fluoride, sulphate, silica, phosphate etc
Conductivity meter microprocessor based / Systronics / Any International Brand / 4 / 50 thousand / For EC measurement
pH meter microprocessor based / Systronics / Any International Brand / 4 / 40 thousand / For pH measurement
Digital Burrette / Any International Brand / 6 / 80 thousand / For titration
flame photometer Micro-processor based with compressor / Systronics / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For Sodium and potassium analysis
AC Mobile Chemical Lab with field kits / Any International Brand / 6 / 50 lakhs / For on the spot analysis, facilitates the obtaining of rapid in-situ procedures with laboratory accurate results.
Turbidity Meter / Any International Brand / 2 / 30 thousand / For laboratory use
ISE Meter (Ion Meter) / Any International Brand / 2 / 2.5 lakhs / For laboratory use
Dissolved Oxygen (DO Meter) / Any International Brand / 2 / 30 thousand / For laboratory use
Electronic Pipette Controller / Any International Brand / 10 / 20 thousand / For laboratory use
BOD Apparatus / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Bacteriological Incubator / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
COD digester / Any International Brand / 2 / 80 thousand / For COD analysis
Colony Counter / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Multi spin Magnetic stirrer / Any International Brand / 2 / 40 thousand / For laboratory use
Refrigerator / Any International Brand / 4 / 30 thousand / For laboratory use
multi parameters water analysis kit / Any International Brand / 2 / 90 thousand / For laboratory use
Computers / Any International Brand / 10 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Software- AquaChem / Any International Brand / 10 / 90 thousand / For laboratory use

Manpower requirement in Zonal Ground Water Research Laboratory

Post / Required
Regional Director(WQ) / 1
Suptd. Chemist / 1
Sr. Chemist / 2
Chemist / 4
Asstt. Chemist / 4
Bacteriologist / 2
Lab Asstt. / 6
Lab Attendants / 6

In Regional Chemical Laboratory the facility for the analysis of following parameters must be available-

Major Instruments requirement in Regional Chemical Laboratory

PROPOSAL OF INSTRUMENTS REQUIRED
Name of the Equipment / Make / Qty / Tentative cost for each in Rs. / Remarks
Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer / Shimadzu / Perkin Elmer / GBC / 1 / 40 Lakhs / Trace/Heavy metal analysis
Analytical Balance / Metler / Sortorius / 2 / 2 Lakh / For Weighing
Conductivity meter microprocessor based / Systronics / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For EC measurement
P C Based UV-VIS Spectrophotometer / Shimadzu / any International Brand / 2 / 5-8 Lakh / For the analysis of non metal ions like nitrate, fluoride, sulphate, silica, phosphate etc
TOC analyser / Shimadzu / any International Brand / 2 / 25 Lakh / For the analysis of organic pollutionorganic pollution
pH meter microprocessor based / Systronics / Any International Brand / 2 / 40 thousand / For pH measurement
Digital Burrette / Any International Brand / 4 / 80 thousand / For titration
flame photometer Micro-processor based with compressor / Systronics / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For Sodium and potassium analysis
Field testing Kit / Any International Brand / 2 / 50 thousand / For on the spot analysis
Turbidity Meter / Any International Brand / 2 / 30 thousand / For laboratory use
ISE Meter (Ion Meter) / Any International Brand / 2 / 2.5 lakhs / For laboratory use
Dissolved Oxygen (DO Meter) / Any International Brand / 2 / 30 thousand / For laboratory use
Electronic Pipette Controller / Any International Brand / 6 / 20 thousand / For laboratory use
BOD Apparatus / Any International Brand / 1 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Bacteriological Incubator / Any International Brand / 1 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Colony Counter / Any International Brand / 1 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Multi spin Magnetic stirrer / Any International Brand / 1 / 40 thousand / For laboratory use
Refrigerator / Any International Brand / 2 / 30 thousand / For laboratory use
multi parameters water analysis kit / Any International Brand / 2 / 90 thousand / For laboratory use
Computers / Any International Brand / 6 / 50 thousand / For laboratory use
Software- AquaChem / Any International Brand / 6 / 90 thousand / For laboratory use

Manpower requirement in Regional Chemical Laboratory

Post / Required
Suptdg. Chemist / 1
Sr. Chemist / 2
Chemist / 4
Asstt. Chemist / 4
Bacteriologist / 1
Lab Asstt / 4
Lab Attendent / 4

4