Defluoridation of Contaminated water Employing Opuntia Dilleni

ABOUT AUTHOR
Sangeeta Parihar¹, Bina Rani², AK Chauhan³, Raaz K Maheshwari*^4
1Department of Chemistry, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
²Department of Engineering Chemistry & Environmental Engineering, Poornima College of Engineering Sitapura, Jaipur, Rajasthan
³Department of Chemistry, SBRM Govt PG College, Nagaur, Rajasthan
⁴Department of Chemistry, SK Govt PG College, Sikar, Rajasthan
*E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
Drinking water with excessive concentration of fluoride causes fluorosis which progresses gradually and becomes a crippling malady in the long run. It affects young, old, poor, rich, rural, and urban population. It has attained a very alarming dimension. The state has extreme climatic and geographical condition. Rajasthan suffers both the problems of quantity and quality of water. In most part of the Rajasthan state groundwater is either saline or having high nitrate and fluoride contents. Obviously, groundwater is the major source of drinking water and over 94% of the drinking water demand is met by groundwater. Excess fluoride concentration in drinking water has deleterious effects on human health.  All the districts in Rajasthan are engulfed by the clutches of fluorosis, to a varying degree. There being no perennial surface source for drinking water, the state is dependent chiefly on groundwater and its level is deepening year-by-year due to over exploitation. As the water table is receding, more and more water sources are becoming prone to higher fluoride concentration. The pattern and prevalence of fluorosis in human population are determined by a number of epidemiological factors like water chemistry, demographic and nutritional profile of the community and high mean annual temperature of the area. Adsorbent prepared from Opuntia dilleni is employed to defluoridate contaminated water in this research paper.
Keywords: Fluorosis, Opuntia dilleni, Adsorbance, Clinical manifestations, Contact time, Mitigation