The BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) is reportedly mulling the setting up of a water desalination plant near Gorai Beach. With rainfall in the region no longer predictable, there’s a rise in the need for alternative potable water sources.
Desalination plants are used to treat and purify seawater into potable water. Officials have said that they will use seawater samples from the west coast of Mumbai for the setting up of this desalination plant.
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“A suitable plot will be considered for the project on the west coast as the Port Trust authorities own land on the east coast. We plan to acquire a plot owned by the government owing to the cost factor,” an unnamed BMC official said while speaking to the Hindustan Times.
The Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray reportedly provided the approval for this project while also asking civic body officials to create a feasibility report after going through the 2007 plan put out by the BMC.
This plan was designed to suggest alternatives to water sources following subpar rainfall in the catchment areas of dams. Given that Mumbai’s water supply is heavily reliant on these dams, this was a matter of grave concern for the authorities.
“The cost for a desalination plant has been optimised because of evolution of technology. The cost of construction of the plant is the same as that of a dam. It is estimated to cost around Rs 1,800 crore to construct a 200 MLD plant,” Additional Municipal Commissioner of the BMC, P Velrasu said.
“We had to find a sustainable solution because of changing patterns of rainfall. We cannot go on constructing dams by cutting trees. We need a back-up plan,” he added.
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The commissioner further said that an Israeli company has been asked to submit a feasibility report as it was previously involved in a similar desalination plant in Isreal with a capacity of 650 million litres per day. He also said that the construction of this proposed plant may take up to three years.
In 2016-17, the civic body set out to establish two desalination plants with one planned for southern Mumbai and the other for the suburban parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
It was said at the time that these desalination plants will have the capacity to process 100 million litres of seawater into potable water per day. Unfortunately, the projects were later said to be on hold due to rising costs.
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