As several states of India face sever water shortage and drought, which has claimed many lives in recent time. People in many parts of the country are forced to walk upto 10KM daily to fetch potable water. Water shortage is not the problem of only India but of the whole world. In fact many African countries are the worst ones to go experience such a situation.
The government of India has a daunting challenge to provide drinkable water 24×7 across the country. The challenge gets tougher because we have limited amount of water on earth which can be used in our daily life, despite the fact that two thirds of earth is covered with water.This water is saline and has no use of it for humans and animals. Only 1% of water on earth is usable which is obtained from limited sources such as rivers, poonds, lakes, ground water etc. which are further filled with rain water. Thus the ultimate source of fresh water is sea as even rainwater comes directly therefrom.
No doubt that if we somehow manage to obtain water directly from oceans, there will be no water shortage. Keeping this in mind, scientists from all across the world are busy on materialising the dream to make sea water drinkable. Recently the western world did a successful experiment which can filter saline water into fresh water. But it consumed lots of energy and the output was comparatively low.
Now Indian scientists set up a huge plant on sea coast of Tamilnadu to produce fresh water on a large scale. The plant will initially produce 63 litres of potable water every day – directly from sea water. In addition, they have also assured that groundwater which has arsenic and uranium is safe for human consumption.
The best part of this Indian initiative is that scientists will use only waste material of Indian nuclear reactors to power the plant. This is line killing two birds with one stone. Now our scientists are all set to expand this technology all across India.
“The filter plant was set up at Tamil Nadu’s Kalpakkam by scientists of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre ( BARC) and will use waste steam from a nuclear reactor to filter the saline water.” Sources said
“Besides, BARC has developed several membranes, by which, at a very small cost, groundwater contaminated by uranium or arsenic can be purified and make fit for drinking,” Dr Vyas said