Coconuts and sand purify water for India’s traditional washers
HoWest student Emile Lievens has created a simple yet effective water filtration system for the traditional open-air laundry in India
Pure and simple
The science behind the design might be more complex – not to mention the process of effectively building the filtration system in India – but it embodies one of the basic principles of design: Less is more.
For his bachelor’s thesis, Lievens, who studies industrial product design at West Flanders University College (HoWest), travelled to India to make sure his design would suit local needs. He took part in an internship organised in collaboration with the Ghent University’s India Platform, a research group focused on cultural dialogue.
“The incredibly rich cultural tapestry of India is fascinating to me,” he says. “It was a great opportunity to get to know the country. The India Platform proposed a number of projects, and I chose to work on the Dhobi Ghat in Bangalore.”
The Dhobi Gath (pictured), located in the Malleswaram neighbourhood of Bangalore, is one of the biggest professional cleaners in this southern city, washing clothes for both individuals and industries. It provides a livelihood to as much as 400 washers and their families, who collect laundry from local hotels, hospitals and other places.
Pressing issue
Although the open-air laundry has some modern equipment, most of the washing is done by hand in concrete sinks and hung out to dry on clothes lines. But the practice of hand washing poses a lot of concerns when it comes to the quality of the water.
It takes an enormous amount of potable water to fill the big washing pools. Later on, the waste water, polluted with filth and chemicals, is disposed into open canals, creating a threat to both the environment and public health.
You see incredible amounts of water just go down the drain every day
The Dhobi Gath, which was modernised in 2010, has a filter installed to treat the wastewater, but the system is no longer operational; the washers cannot afford to maintain the complex and expensive system.
“When I learned about India’s water problems, I was determined to work on this issue,” Lievens says. “In a few decades, the country will face serious water shortages. I did an analysis on the quality of the drinking water in Bangalore, and the results were awful.”
At the same time, he continues, “you see incredible amounts of water just go down the drain every day. As a designer, I challenged myself to find the best possible solution to this problem.”
The solution is called Niru, meaning “water” in Kannada, the local language. The idea is to install an inexpensive and low-maintenance filter that provides water for sanitary use, like showering and flushing the toilets.
Bio filters
“Every day, two big sinks are filled with 100,000 litres of water each”, Lievens explains. “The government has built a housing project for the people who work at the Dhobi Gath, and the idea is to use the filtered waste water for sanitary needs in those buildings.”
Niru relies on existing technologies. It uses a filtration system based on coconut shells that absorbs particles and chemicals from the water. But because the washers also work on hospital garments, an additional filter was needed to get rid of any bacteria.
A second filtration system was brought in. “Sand has an anti-bacterial effect,” Lievens explains. “The combination of these two biological filters results in water that is clean enough to be re-used.”
Some of the workers cling to their traditions, which makes it difficult to introduce new practices
Although officially abolished, the caste system still influences social relations in India. The same goes for the washers. “The washers and their families belong to one of the lower castes,” Lievens says. “They are self-employed and have to look for clients. Even though the work is very demanding, they earn less than €1 a day.”
A lot of them also have bleach marks on their hands and legs from detergents. “The profession is hereditary and passes on from father to son,” Lievens continues. “Some of the workers also cling to their traditions, which makes it difficult to introduce new practices.”
The next logical step is to install the filtration system in Dhobi Gath. But if there is one thing that Lievens has learned in India, is that things move more slowly there.
“It is essential to know the right people to get things done,” he says. “The decision-making process is incredibly slow, rigid and chaotic. I am still in contact with different people, both here and in India. Whether Niru will ever be used depends on the political decisions in Bangalore.”
Photo: MM/Wikimedia
