TiPOT Project, Kasimpore

The TiPOT Project at Kasimpore was the pre-cursor of the World Bank Project DM 06-880. The consortium of some European Universities & Indian Research Institutes (as mentioned below) experimented with the In-situ Arsenic Removal Technology at Kasimpore under the funding of EU. After obtaining desired result, they decided to take their work to the next level by participating in the DM Competition of World Bank.

The TiPOT (Technology for in-situ treatment of groundwater for potable and irrigation purposes) project at Kasimpore on "Subterranean Arsenic Removal" was funded in the Asia Pro Eco Programme of the EU (Contract Reference No.: ASI/B7-301/2598/24-2004/79013). The objectives of the project were the development of a low-cost technology for in-situ treatment of groundwater for potable and irrigation purposes and to formulate practice-based guidelines for this a rural water treatment technology for Eastern India. Roughly more than 70 million people in the Bengal region are affected due to arsenic exposure especially through consumption of drinking water. The aims of the project were therefore the assurance of arsenic free water for general consumption and irrigation at low cost and to enhance food safety in the affected areas through sustainable irrigation and farming practices.

A consortium of Universities and Institutes worked together on the project. The lead partner was Queens University Belfast (QUB). Other participating partners were: National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, India (NML); Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management, Stuttgart, Germany (ISWA); Universidad Miguel Hernandez, Alicante, Spain (UMH); Institute of Environmental Management and Studies, India (IEMS), and the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, the Netherlands (CML).

Having a successful history in countries as Germany and Switzerland, ISWA (with help of especially NML and RKVM-IAS), applied the in-situ technology in a case study site near Kolkata. In anticipation of the positive results, other partners worked on issues as arsenic in food (UMH), arsenic and irrigation (QUB) and the way to bring the technology to the people in India (CML and IEMS).

After the successful outcome in the TiPOT project, RKVM-IAS competed for the "Development Marketplace Global Competition, 2006" hosted by the World Bank in the "Water & Sanitation for the Poor People" Category & emerged as one of the Winners in this prestigious competition.

visit TiPOT website: www.qub.ac.uk/sites/TiPOT/