DESALINATION PLANTS

Watered down effort 

We are scraping the bottom of water sources. It is time we leaned on desalination plants

Debasish Roy 


Water wars do not refer to exchanges during Holi anymore. They are going to be real soon as in the next five years neighbours are likely to kill each other for want of drinking water. Fresh water is the elusive entity whereas brackish water is available in abundance in 71 per cent of the earth's surface. This makes human habitation extremely fragile and difficult to sustain. Government bodies have been largely saddled with the dirty job of cleaning water and delivering it to people's homes for a price. This model is clearly not working any more as the pressure on populations and cities is way too much. 
On the other hand, we cannot neglect the importance of water in our daily lives. Says Anshu Bagai, marketing director , Tupperware India, "Water , is the most precious resource on planet earth and is essential for all dimensions of life. I believe that the lack of safe drinking water and storage of water are the biggest hurdles in the path of good health. This requirement has created a boom in the water storage segment and the Indian market is looking forward for innovative and hygienic products." 
Small companies such as www.waterofindia.com, www.fermish .com and www.delhiforwater .com have tried to address the problem to a certain extent by spreading awareness about the concept as well as thier own company's products. However, a lot more needs to be done before things are even neck to neck with the problem. For instance, the Yamuna is one 25th the size of what it was during 1980s by volume. On the other hand, the population of Delhi has grown equally. Where will the water come from to service this mammoth population 
Says Anupam Bharat, MD, Usha Shriram Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, "Water is the driving force for all of nature and our health. It keeps a doctor away if we drink it cleaner and safer so water purifiers play a big role in maintaining good health. Better safe than sorry in case of drinking water." Ideas such as Bharat's reflect the need for the age old technique of rain water harvesting started by the Mughals of Samarkhand; they never allowed a drop of water to escape to a drain after the rain. Water was stored in hollow walls and underground reservoirs which cool the fort and also supply water for daily needs. Unfortunately, nowadays the population of a city is 100 times what it was those days and everyone lives outside the fort. 
Desalination on the other hand is a better option where the expenditure incurred by a company or a government is one time. At a cost of Rs 575 crore ($115 million) or more, one can set up a desalination plant and then keep changing the ceramic filters where the saline water is passed under pressure where it yields the pollutant particles as gunk. This is a sustainable model of water supply and it is also cheaper in the long run -- all it needs is political will to spend the one time investment in areas such as the middle east, Washington DC, Hong Kong and our very own Chennai. 
Trial and error is not something that is possible here.