‘Desalination plant at Dahej to become operational by 2022’

BHARUCH: Effective management of potable water is the need of the hour and so, every agency, private or public, managing water distribution system should be made accountable, said B N Navlawala, advisor to the chief minister of Gujarat at a session of National Management Convention at Bharuch on Friday.
Speaking at the seminar on "Water - A key to success for sustainable growth", he said that water audit should be done to keep track and also record inflow and outflow of water.If accountability is not fixed, misuse of water will continue without any check or fear, Navlawala emphasized.
The present “water stress” is more acute because of three ‘Mis’ — misallocation, mispricing and mismanagement — he said, than actual shortage. The standard of per capita water consumption is set at 140 litre per day per person. This has increased to 228 litres per day. This means either the water consumption has increased or there is mismanagement of water distribution, In the same way, unaccounted water withdrawal for irrigation has also increased and so it has for industrial usage.
The most ambitious proposed Bhadbhut barrage project with an investment of Rs 4,500 crore is the only solution to stop salinity ingress in river Narmada. The barrage once constructed will ensure water security for irrigation, potable water for Bharuch, Ankleshwar Nagarpalika and several neighbouring villages too. It will also improve ground water quality which is deteriorated is the past few years because of high salinity.
Deputy chief engineer GIDC, G J Gamit said, “GIDC has a very efficient water management system in existence. However, availability of water is a concern and to address this, GIDC has awarded work to L&T to set up the 100MLD desalination plant at Dahej with an investment of Rs1,100 crore.
The Dahej-based industries have already booked 70 MLD quantity from the desalination plant which is expected to be operational by mid 2022.
The PCPIR, petrochemical, chemical and petroleum investment region will require 350 million gallon of water every day by 2025, of which the present availability is of around 100MGD. Thus there is great need to find a solution to meet this huge future demand and also for its sustainable growth.