Utilising chemistry laboratories in higher secondary schools, the Haritha Keralam Mission, in association with the Education Department, is setting up 35 water quality testing laboratories in the State.
District Coordinator of Haritha Keralam Mission P. Prakashan said 12 such labs had been set up in Beypore, Kozhikode South, Kunnamangalam and Koyilandy constituencies in the district. The labs have been set up at Seva Mandir Post Basic Higher Secondary School, Ramanattukara; Government Ganapath Higher Secondary School, Feroke; C.M. Higher Secondary School, Kadalundi; GHSS, Cheruvannur; GVHSS, Azhchavattam; GHSS Kuttichira; GHSS, Medical College Campus; GHSS, Kunnamangalam; GHSS, Iringallur; GVHSS, Payyoli; and GVHSS, Koyilandy.
The labs are part of a State-wide initiative to make water safer for the public. As water contamination leads to several diseases, it was necessary to ensure the purity and safety of water. Hence, such public laboratories had been set up where basic water testing could be done at a very low rate, said Mr. Prakashan. “We also plan to get students involved in the project so as to develop them into ambassadors of water safety,” he added.
The labs can be used to test the colour, smell, pH value, conductivity, salt content, quantity of dissolved solids, amount of nitrate, ammonia and coliform bacteria in water. In the long run, there will be one such lab in every local body. Labs will soon be set up in two schools in Thiruvambady constituency, five schools in Balussery, ten schools in Perambra and five schools in Nadapuram. The labs are being funded from the local MLAs’ constituency development funds.
