New mission on desalination will be launched soon, says Harsh Vardhan

Union Minister of Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that a new mission on desalination will be launched soon.

"Recently I went to Lakshadweep and got the opportunity to see how desalination plants are working. We are now working on desalination mission. In the next 100 days, we will launch a deep ocean mission, for which the discussion will be held in the Cabinet. The wealth of the ocean will be used as a source of energy," he said.

The process of desalination involves removing salt and other minerals from water in order to make it fit for consumption or other purposes. The filtration of saline water can be done through Thermal Desalination Technology or Membrane Technology like Reverse Osmosis (RO).

Doctor-turned-politician Vardhan also lauded the scientists working at Ministry of Earth Science for accurately predicting the weather forecast on a daily basis saying, "Our weather forecasting agency is fourth all over the world. America, England, and Japan are ahead of us. The weather forecast is helping farmers and fishermen which in turn has helped to improve our GDP figures in the past. At present, we are informing 40,000 farmers on a daily basis."

" These scientists also predicted cyclone Fani four days in advance which saved a lot of lives as lakhs of people were evacuated on time by the authorities. For earthquakes, the scientists have also placed censors in some zones in Maharashtra which are very prone. This will help us to give warning in advance," he added.

In his concluding statement, the Union Minister informed media that the weather forecasting agency has predicted that this year monsoon will be delayed by six to seven days. " In Kerala, each year monsoon comes on June 1 but this year, scietists are saying it will hit the region around June 6 or June 7. In June, there will be deficient pre-monsoon rains and later monsoon will arrive in full swing. Heat wave in the northern region will continue for the next few days. All the work done by our scientist will be shared with the public."

On Monday, Dr Harsh Vardhan took charge as the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare. During the first term of the Modi government, Harsh Vardhan was appointed Minister of Health and Family Welfare in 2014. He was later given the charge of the Ministry of Earth Sciences and Ministry of Science and Technology.

In 2017, he was appointed the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change following the demise of Union minister Anil Madhav Dave.

In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, Harsh Vardhan retained his Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency, winning it by a margin of over two lakh votes.