According to BESU Vice-Chancellor Ajoy Kumar Ray, the arsenic filter has been installed at 100 places in North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia and is giving very satisfactory results. “A team of professors from the environment study group of the university has been working on the project and have devised the filter that removes arsenic and flouride from water and can be fitted in the pump directly,” Ray said.

Ray said that the university is also working with the Queen’s University Belfast, for improving the technology.

The arsenic and flouride filters have been developed by Professors Anirban Gupta and Kalyan Bhar of the civil engineering department, who have a patent over the technology, the university authorities said.

So far, of the 100 tubes that have been fitted, 38 have been set up in pumps near schools. Problems with arsenic contamination is prominent in the Gangetic belt, where 79 of the 341 blocks are affected in the state. K J Nath, chairman of the Arsenic Task Force of West Bengal have asked the university to commercialise the technology and provide more such filters.