Acute scarcity of water in the city this summer has forced Dakshina Kannada district administration to take an initiative to set up a desalination plant.
The plant would supply water to industries.
At a meeting called by A.B. Ibrahim, Deputy Commissioner, here on Wednesday, industry representatives favoured setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (company for a specific purpose) to take the initiative forward.
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The Deputy Commissioner said that the Joint Director of Industries, Dakshina Kannada, would be the nodal officer.
The nodal officer should consult the heads of major industries and assess the demand for water and make a study on the type of desalination plant which could be set up, land required, power requirement, application of Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) rules, government clearance and how the SPV could be floated.
The Deputy Commissioner said that once the SPV was set up, industries could purchase water from it from the desalination plant managed by it.
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K. Prabhakar Rao, Director, Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers (MCF) Ltd., told the meeting that desalination of sea/river/brackish water was a proven global technology. The MCF faced acute shortage of water this summer for the first time. It forced the company to stop urea production.
With Mangaluru growing and demand for water for drinking and industries increasing, it was time for industries to adopt desalination to meet the demand for water.
Cost of water
Sridhar, a representative from Mumbai-based Ion Exchange (India) Ltd., a company with expertise in setting up desalination plants, said that the operating cost of producing a kilolitre of water works out to around Rs. 40. At present, Mangaluru City Corporation was providing water for industrial use at Rs. 60 per kilolitre. If one takes both variable and fixed costs, the cost will come to around Rs. 60 per kilolitre, he said and added that it makes sense for industries to opt for desalination plants.
G. Srinikethan, professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology –Karnataka (NITK), said that recycling water using all available means would be the order of the day. He said that all industries could become stakeholders in the SPV to set up the plant on build-own-operate mode.
The meeting decided that the plant to be set up should cater to the water requirement of industries for at least the next 15 years.
Industries can purchase water from the SPV which will manage the desalination plant