As the towns and cities in India experience breathtaking growth ,
there is one question that inevitably pops up. What is the source
of fresh water supply for these new dwellings? Too often the answer you
get is a muddle of options:New borewells , water transported
by tankers from an external source and occasionally the local water
supply authority.
Extracting groundwater by sinking borewells has become a widespread solution. With the help of cheap electricity, rural agriculture also depends very heavily on ground water.All of this causes heavy damage to water table levels and
acquifers across the country. A common refrain you hear these days is
that water shortages pose a serious risk to India's growth.
A new water policy being
considered hopes to address some of these problems. The aim is to put a price on water usage and encourage innovation.
Inter-linking of rivers has been considered as a possible solution in the past.The previous government under NDA was a
big advocate of this. Even if there was strong political support for it, doubts linger over the ability of the Indian state to execute a project of such large scale.
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| Source: mapsofindia.com |
In
the face of all these obstacles, it is a good time to
reconsider ocean water desalination. High
energy usage has been one of the impediments to large scale water desalination in the past.
Most of this energy had to be sourced by burning fossil fuels.The changing renewable
energy landscape and
rapid strides(pdf) in desalination techniques make it a viable option now. Looking at the map of India's coastline, a vast
area of the country is within 200 miles(320 Kms) of the sea.
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| Source: Google maps with my edits for 200 mile markers |
With
the right incentives and a reasonable tariff regime for water, solar
energy can be used to desalinate water.Water obtained through desalination could not just be used for regular
consumption, but also to replenish the rapidly receding ground water table.There
was a time when such ideas were not within India's grasp. In the
words of an analyst on India's Solar energy sector:
“Things that weren’t feasible have suddenly opened up,”
Magal said. “As prices drop, you suddenly see huge segments of
the market open up.”
Indeed.
