By 2026, Mumbai will be the largest consumer of water among coastal cities in the country. The city alone would account for 55% of the total water demand at that point, according to a report of Frost & Sullivan, an international consultant, released last year.
Scary, but given the unbridled construction activity in the already congested city and growing population, the monsoons may not be enough to meet its water needs. In anticipation of such a scenario, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the planning body for the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), has decided to set up three desalination plants to retrieve normal water from sea. It comes nearly a year after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided on a similar move.
Confirming the development, MMRDA metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad has said that the authority will soon appoint consultants to find out the feasibility of the desalination project within the MMR.
“We have already initiated the development of dams such as Poshi, Pinjal, Kalu and Shai. One of the first objectives of the consultants will include finding a suitable location for the project. We are looking at Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai or even some coastal place in Mumbai as on of the possible locations,” said Gaikwad.
It was during the recent Singapore visit of the chief minister that the idea of MMRDA setting up such a plant was first mooted.
Describing the project, Gaikwad said, “This will be a public private partnership (PPP) model where MMRDA’s financial involvement will be limited up to bearing the viability gap. One such project which is being constructed in Chennai at the most has a total cost of Rs600 crore. However, their capacity is hardly 100 MLD (at a cost of Rs6 crore per MLD); whereas MMRDA is looking at a capacity of close to 1500 MLD.”
Gaikwad said that the primary objective of the project will always be the rest of MMR.
