Water desalination has big potential in India, says a firm

Chennai, April 2 (IANS) Water treatment company Va Tech Wabag is confident that water desalination will be a big business in the near future and it is gearing up to have a sizeable share of that pie.

“The Indian desalination water market is growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30 percent over a period of five years from 2013 to 2018. The desalination capacity in India is seen at 5,350 million litres per day (MLD) by 2018,” Rajiv Mittal, managing director, told reporters here Tuesday.

He said the company in consortium with Cadagua of Spain and Gaifar of Oman would be executing a 192 MLD desalination water project at a total outlay of around $250 million at Al Gubrah, Oman.

According to Mittal, the Oman project is one of the many ongoing large-scale joint initiatives with Sumitomo Corporation of Japan.

He said it is a myth that desalinated water is costly as the cost is only four or five paise per litre.

“The input-output ratio has improved now. We now get 45 percent clean drinking water while processing the sea water,” Mittal said.

Va Tech Wabag has recently commissioned the 100 MLD desalination water project near here for the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, commonly known as Chennai Metro Water.

“The order is in two parts – design and construction of the plant, and operation and maintenance of the plant for seven years. We have been paid by Chennai Metro Water around 70 percent of Rs.580 crore, the cost of first phase,” Mittal said.

He said the operation and maintenance revenue for the seven years will be around Rs.70-72 crore per year.

The multinational is targeting the water markets in Latin America, Sri Lanka, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

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