Question : Desalination of Saline Water

(a) whether the Government has formulated any policy to promote desalination of saline water and if so the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has proposed to take any foreign assistance for setting up desalination plants in various areas as per requirement and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government has any mechanism to monitor or identify areas having saline water and if so the details thereof particularly in Madhya Pradesh; and

(d) the steps taken by the Government to improve the quality of ground water in the said areas?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR
MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
AND EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) Department of Science & Technology (DST) under Water Technology Initiative has launched a call for enrolment of Solution providers in the area of Desalination Technologies and compiled & published a compendium in the year 2019 to bring out the status of Global and National Desalination technologies.DST has demonstrated various innovative and customized desalination solutions at the lab /pilot scale and at test beds such as Multi Effect Desalination (MED), Reverse Osmosis (RO), and Forward Osmosis (FO), etc in partnership with different Institutions/Industries and other stakeholders in the country. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through its autonomous Institute National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has developed Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) technology for conversion of sea water to potable water which has been successfully demonstrated in Lakshadweep islands and coastal power plants. Further, water supply is a State subject and power to plan, approve and implement water supply schemes including setting up of desalination plants for drinking water, are vested with respective State Governments.

(b) No, Sir. MoES has not taken any foreign assistance for setting up desalinisation plants in Lakshadweep Islands.

(c) MoES does not monitor or identify areas having saline water. As per the information received from the Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, as per existing guidelines, under Government of India’s Jal Jeevan Mission, IS:10500 is to be adopted for ensuring safe drinking water supply and States/ UT shave been advised to carry out testing of drinking water sources once in year for chemical and physical parameters, and twice in a year for bacteriological parameters. As reported by Madhya Pradesh State, 4 habitations have salinity-affected drinking water sources.

(d) MoES does not have any program to improve the quality of groundwater.