Vice Prez bats for cost-effective desalination initiatives

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday batted for cost-effective desalination initiatives to fulfill the country's drinking water needs and favoured more research to address the issue.

Addressing the silver jubilee celebrations of the National Institute of Ocean Technology here, he lauded the institution for its sustained efforts in six key areas of blue economy including fisheries and aquaculture, renewable ocean energy, offshore hydrocarbons, and marine biotechnology.

These were all very important for the progress of the nation, the Vice President said.

The blue economy will aid in achieving the 14th of UN sustainable development goals, which is "life below water".

It states "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development," he said.

There is a need to give a strong thrust to research activities and innovation in the areas of ocean energy, marine biology and biotechnology for the nation to become a leader in those sectors and NIOT can be a forerunner for achieving the milestone, he said.

On NIOT's technologies for societal applications like the desalination plants, he said, "I am sure in the coming days, this process of desalination will get further impetus because I am worried that we may face water problem and water challenges."
Pointing to indications from some people that "there may be water wars across the globe," he said and added "we must try to utilise available sea water and for that you need to do more and more research."
Naidu further said "you already found some solutions but it has to be cost-effective because converting saline water to potable water; sweet water is a very good thing that will solve the the problem to maximum possible extent but the question is at what cost and that is the issue."
"We are a huge country with 130 crore population and our requirement is also huge; we have to focus our attention on future challenges along with present challenges."
Stating the nation has a "galloping population," he said "...we are not focusing enough attention on population planning; family planning and population planning."