The news of sad demise of Dr. A. G. Bhole was shocking to me. Recently we had met in Mumbai IWWA convention. I had gone there when my wife was seriously ill, only to attend the opening fuction where our new website was to be launched. When Dr. Bhole saw me, he was very happy and asked me sit along with him in first row, where we both were sitting side by side and he took selfie of both of us. He was simple, lovable and treated all students as his colleagues, even though, he was one of the most talented and genius in Water Treatment for last 5 decades.
He was examiner for my Ph. D. thesis in 1976 and was very happy that I worked on dual media filter with indigenous coal as substitute to imported Anthracite. He used to come to Walchand College many times for examination of our post graduate students and we were using that opportunity to arrange his lectures in Sangli and Kolhapur Engineering Colleges. I remember his lecture in Kolhapur in 2015, when he had come in spite of serious injury to his back.
I had been the external examiner of his many students, notable among them is Dr. S. V. Dahasahasra, who is a well known authority in 24x7 water supply.
I visited Nagpur for PhD. examination of his student Shri. Sandip Gupta ( Who is now IPS of Aurangabad) who has worked on design of Rural Water Treatment Plant in Chandrapur area. At that time I had visited their Laxminarayan Institute and his house also.
His lecture on Water treatment always was a good treat for students, where he explained complex concepts in lucid language with interesting stories to impress the significance.
I still recall his lecture, where he narrated his experience of visiting water treatment plant at an army camp.To tell you his words ...
" The army officer welcomed me and took around the water treatment plant and showed me the various units, he also emphasised that after filtration, they give activated carbon treatment to remove taste and odour, then use reverse osmosis to remove salts and use ultraviolet rays for disinfection. I was pleased.
But he said, we are very particular about health of our boys and we give them only bottled water for drinking."
Joke apart, he used to tell the students that Corporations are spending huge amounts in treating the water, but most of water is being used for non drinking purposes and new business of bottled water has thrived with fear dogma created in society. He stressed the importance of low cost methods for rural water supplies.
He was worried about present condition of IWWA and remarked that it has become a meeting place of officers and contractors rather than academic research and knowledge dissimination to students and general public.
Most of the water treatment plants need upgradation and can be upgraded by tube settlers and conversion of filters to multimedia. However, the general observation was discarding old plant and construct new plants with huge investments.
His book on Design of Water Treatment Plants through IWWA was very popular in students over a long time, but lacked colorful printing and marketing.
I feel, that Indian Water Works should convene a special session to address the issue he raised about augmentation of existing water treatment plants in honour of his service in this field.
We had used his advice and designed water treatment plant at Padmale, Kolpewadi, Kopargaon. At Padmale village, we constructed slow sand filter with earthen embankments. At Kolpewadi, a small water treatment plant for sugar factory colony. At Sanjivani Sugar, Kopargaon, we designed lamela plate settler. However our consultancy could not go to large scale plants as they were governed by big corporate companies who forced new plant constructions.
I shall always remember his advice and try to propagate his teachings to my students and in my consultancy work in future. We have to consider economy and performance efficiency along with ease of manual operation as the manpower in such plants are not educated..
I feel that his untiring efforts and vision of providing self reliant and low cost methods of water treatment should inspire future water engineers to work in this direction. There is a great need for such approach for rural area and small towns with limited financial resources. .
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