The State government has decided to go slow on its plan to drill deep in search of ‘untapped water’ after the “Patala Gange” proposal was met with severe incredulity among geologists and scientists.
After an intensive meeting on Monday, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil said the Patala Gange proposal — where Karnataka may be among the first States to attempt drilling for ‘seawater distillate’ — will be deferred until another set of consultations among experts is held. “We will take all the views and then make a decision in the Cabinet,” he said.
The proposal, mooted by the company WaterQuest, involves tapping “distillate” that is generated when seawater enters the continental crust and gets converted to steam. The steam then condenses in pockets, which are between 300m to 800m below the earth’s surface, claims the company.
Mr. Patil said this “novel technology” was accredited by the Union government during a recent meeting of ‘water-stressed’ States, including Karnataka. “We have asked the company to drill first and prove the concept, following which we can expand it. If water is not found, we do not pay for it. If it works, it can act as contingency for drinking water in drought-prone areas such as Pavagada (Tumakuru) or Indi (Vijayapura). The State government is open-minded in this,” Mr. Patil said.
According to the presentation by WaterQuest, drilling —supplemented by concrete casing — can produce up to 1 lakh litres per hour with “no environmental impact”. The company claimed that this was a “perennial and sustainable” water source.
‘Scientific fantasy’
However, many scientists, geologists and professors, who gathered at the consultation meeting, said this was too good to be true. They questioned the credibility of the company as well as the technology proposed. “It is unscientific to think that seawater evaporates in channels in the crust. It is a scientific fantasy,” said H. Chandrashekar, former Joint Director, Department of Mines and Geology.
Similarly, B.C. Prabhakar, geology professor in Bangalore University, termed the concept as fundamentally flawed. “Saline water intrusion is only seen in the coast, and not 300km inland as the company claims,” he said. With no suitable scientific literature found, Subash Chandra, principal scientist with National Geophysical Research Institute, said: “Technically, it is very hard to confirm this technology.”
‘Give it a go’
Amidst the outpouring of scepticism, there were a few voices that believed that a pilot must be done to prove the concept. “In 1960, people did not believe that borewell technology could exist...Even though there are no technical studies on this (seawater distillate technology), there is no harm in trying a pilot,” said R.H. Sawkar, secretary of Geological Society of India.
With many believing that the project is aimed to controversially tap paleo-fossil water, which is trapped over thousands of years ago deep underneath the earth’s surface, C.R. Prabhu, scientist with Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre said a pilot project and associated tests can easily disprove the claims. “Isotropic testing can prove if the water is indeed seawater or if it is fossil water,” he said.
