Deterioration of groundwater quality due to geogenic and anthropogenic activities is now a serious issue all over the world. Evidences of contamination of groundwater resources prevail in many areas of India, particularly Assam. More than 80% of the rural population of Assam depend on groundwater resources for drinking and irrigation. The iron quantity in the groundwater of Assam is found to be between the desirable to permissible limits almost throughout the state. Iron, the common household water contaminant, has no direct health effect at concentrations generally found in groundwater. But high concentration causes staining, offensive taste and odor. The rural population of Assam frequently use sand, pebbles, charcoal and lime in their common water filtration technique for water purification. A study was carried out on the common indigenous water filtration technique using four different bamboo charcoals (Bhaluka, Jati, Makal and Bijuli) separately for iron removal. The study reveals that all the four types of bamboo charcoal could effectively remove iron from water. However, charcoal from Bambusa balcooa (Bhaluka) is more capable of decreasing the iron levels to desirable limits.

Groundwater resources are being utilized excessively for drinking, irrigation and industrial purposes as these are reliably available at present (Kannan, 1991; and Saeed et al., 2009). According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report 2002, water stress or scarcity will affect more than 2.8 billion people in 48 countries by 2025. This water scarcity affects many developing and emerging countries so that appropriate technologies are needed for purification of The IUP Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. III, No. 2, 62 2011 groundwater to enable safe use (UNEP, 2002). In Assam, the Northeastern state of India, more than 80% of the rural population depends on groundwater resources for drinking and irrigation purposes (Reddy and Chakraborty, 2009). Hygienization of groundwater using sand, pebbles and charcoal which is commonly known as Sand Filter (SF) is very common in Assam. Sand filtration is a simple technology that has been successfully used for over 200 years in drinking water purification because of its simple and economical construction, operation and maintenance using local materials and skills as well as no requirements for chemicals or energy (Visscher et al., 1987). Different technologies are developed for iron removal with different limitations. Most of the methods are expensive and cannot be adopted by rural people. A quantitative description of the processes leading to iron removal using household waste bamboo charcoal is lacking and therefore, a model with some modifications in the indigenous water filtration techniques was developed. This is a low cost method utilizing the waste product of bamboo firewood which are easily available, eco-friendly and easy to prepare (Langenbach et al., 2010).

The common rural population of Assam still use some Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) in their daily life. People from different places and different ethnic diversity have different ITK, but all have the same focus (Nath et al., 2009). Although this ITK reflects their culture, social status, location, experience and environment of the individuals involved, it is pertinent to identify the technologies and their scientific values for a better future. Bamboo, which fulfills the basic necessities, has become an integral part of life for the rural people of Assam. Different aspects of traditional use of bamboos provide socioeconomic support directly or indirectly, especially to the lower and middle class people (Nath et al., 2009). The association of man with bamboos in India is as old as human civilization. India is the second largest producer of bamboo in the world next to China, and also has a rich diversity of bamboos with almost 130 species. About 78 species are distributed in the Northeastern region of India and 42 species in Assam (Hore, 1998). An attempt was made to access the traditional knowledge-based system of bamboo charcoals in water purification and its importance as well as future prospects for sustainable development of rural water purification technique. The goal of this work was to find out the efficiency of locally available bamboo charcoals for the removal of iron from groundwater and to modify the indigenous SF.

Deterioration, Groundwater, Anthropogenic activities, Indigenous water Filtration technique, Bambusa balcooa, Chemical Engineering Journal, Cross Linked Pva Membranes, Pervaporation Catalytic Membrane Reactor, Membrane Separation Process, Esterification Reactions, Plant Scale Production, Catalytic Membranes, Kinetic Model Equations, Regression Analysis, Pervaporation Reactors.