By. H.
Subramaniam
Desalination Plants
Provide 1 per cent of the world’s Drinking Water Supply..!
World Water Day March 22
With increasing
demand for water & water sources depleting, the desalination sector has
been growing rapidly in the past decade.
Nearly 97.2% of the
earth’s water resources are in the sea. And 39 % of the world’s population (240
Crore people) lives within 100 km of the sea.
As per a study, of
the about 70 cities in the world with no direct access to additional freshwater
source, 42 are in coastal areas.
Now, desalination plants
provide about 1% of the world’s drinking water supply & this number is
increasing every year.
Estimating the global
market value for desalination is extremely difficult as it is composed of a few
large projects. However, the global market is roughly $ 1,200 crore per year,
nearly $ 600 Crore per annum in capital expenditure and nearly $ 600 crore per
year in operating expenditure.
According to the
International Desalination Association (IDA), the last 5 years have seen a 57 % increase in the capacity of desalination
plants on line.
According to the
latest edition of the IDA / GWI Worldwide Desalting Plant Inventory, The
installed base of desalination plants around the world now has a capacity of
7.84 crore cubic metres per day compared to 4.76 crore cubic metres per day at
the end of 2008.
Our country India is
one of the big upcoming global markets for desalination, with 30 new
desalination plants expected in the next 3 to 5 years.
The world's largest
membrane desal plant is the 444 mld Victoria Plant in Melbourne. It will soon
be surpassed by the 500 mld Magtaa plant in Algeria, and the 510 mld Soreq
plant in Israel.
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