The availability water,
undoubtedly limits scope of human activities in any region. Water is the baton
in the energy cycle, which maintains everything as we know today. However, we
seem to be programmed to maintain a careless attitude towards this elixir of
life.
Despite
increasing awareness of consequences of our consumption pattern, we remain
opulent and continue to slide down to increasingly more unsustainable realm. The
news of acute water shortage and its controlled distribution in South Africa
was tossed around on digital platforms with fervour. Not much later, did we get
to hear similar stories from within India. These are unmistakeable harbingers
of tomorrow.
Conservation of
water is one of the most important contemporary challenges. It is more so, especially
in a regime of meteorological uncertainty. Clouds of uncertainty loom large on conventional
strategies of water conservation. However, the 7500 odd Km of our coastline
offers a silver lining. It is high time we give a determined thought on
desalinization as a panacea for our urban water stress.
Although the
notion of massive desalinization of water as source of water for urban
consumption, at the first reading, may seem uneconomic; a closer study will reveal
the contrary. The volume of water that will be available for agriculture itself
will address a lot of economic, social and political anxieties. Establishment
and operationalization of desalinization plants will create employment. The
list of benefits is long.
Sadly, innovators and early adopters are missing.
