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- 7 July 2007 -

The growing need for desalination in India and the Far East

The Far East and India are facing challenges - growth in population number and density, and growth in industry - which threaten already tenuous resources. Zoe Grainge takes a look at this region and sees how desalination is being used to ensure access to clean water.

The state of play

The most recent statistics from the World Health Organisation put the number of people in the world without safe and clean drinking water at around 1.4 billion. The use of desalination as a potential solution to some areas suffering chronic water shortages became slowly more widespread throughout most of the twentieth century, and now, as technology has advanced, there is a momentum gathering behind it.

According to international market research company, Research and Markets, the global desalination industry would grow from 39.9 million cubic metres a day (m3/d) at the beginning of 2006 to 64.3 million m 3 /d by 2010 and 97.5 million m3/d in 2015. The expansion of this capacity will entail capital investment totalling $25 billion by the end of 2010, or $56.4 billion by the end of 2015. This means that, globally, desalination is more open to private sector participation than any other part of the water industry.

As well as water scarcity and industrial growth in countries like China, the falling cost of the desalination process has made it more feasible. Some 40 years ago, the cost of desalinated water stood at $10/m3 . Now, the average cost is around $0.47/m3 , although this varies widely depending on the region.

The situation in China

In the Asian Far East, there are a few countries recognised by the United Nations as having chronic water shortages. China, Japan, and India all have populations in so-called water stressed areas. In China, there are 300 cities suffering from water shortage. Desalination is looking more like a favourable option compared to the alternatives of distributing water around the country. Trans-regional water transfer involves project investment, operation fees, management fees, and losses like evaporation, seepage, river closure and pollution, as well as the occupation of large amounts of land.

Existing desalination in China

There are around 20 small desalination plants in China already. In 2006, market analysts Global Water Intelligence put the online installed capacity (including Hong Kong and Macau) at 380,000 m3/d. The forecast for desalination capacity for 20112-15 is 2.5 million m3/d. The size of the desalination project market (capex) was $55-70 million in 2006 and should reach $600-860 million in 2012-15.

There is political support in the shape of a plan produced in 2005 by the Chinese State Oceanic Administration, the State Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance. This confirmed full central government support for the desalination industry. There has also been a requirement since 2004 that coal fired power plants being built in water stressed areas be prohibited from accessing groundwater and their use of surface water be controlled. This trend has spread to other industries such as chemical and petrochemical. This could mean that desalination growth be spurred on by large industrial developments.

Prohibitive costs?

However, the cost is still prohibitive in a country with a planned economy where water companies rely on public funds. The price of drinking water in China is around 1.5 to 2 Yuan per cubic metre, very low, and as a result water departments are loaded with debt burdens as the price severely deviates from the cost of water production. The price of desalinated water in China including water drawing, equipment, production, operation and management is around 4.5 to 8 Yuan per cubic metre. Yet, the country suffers economically and socially through water shortage, and given the nation's fast industrialisation, desalination plants offer a solution.

Although the Chinese desalination market is small, foreign companies are invited to compete for project development contracts and the supply of membranes and other equipment. Although Chinese equipment manufacturers are catching up fast with foreign producers of desalination systems. Reverse osmosis is the dominant technology in terms of number of projects, but the planned capacity for the power and petrochemical sectors will mostly use MED. Nuclear desalination is likely to play an important role in China beyond 2010. The municipal markets for desalination are not evolving at the same pace as the industrial, but drinking water tariff reform is underway in cities.

Global Water Intelligence says in the next five years "the desalination sector will come of age as an industrial sector in China." This will lead to accelerated sector growth, larger projects and service contracts.

The situation in Japan

Japan has a more advanced desalination industry, and is in a position to export its expertise to neighbouring countries.

In June 2005, the desalination plant in the Fukuoka District Waterworks Agency began operating. The plant provides drinking water capacity of up to 50,000m3/d, which is the largest in Japan. The plant technology is hollow fibre reverse osmosis.

Although distillation has been the most popular technology for desalination globally, particularly in the Middle East, reverse osmosis is catching up because of advances in the technology and reduction in cost.

In the Fukuoka plant an ultra-filtration membrane was adopted for the pre-treatment stage, and the newest reverse osmosis system was selected on a partial two-step design including a low pressure reverse osmosis process. This means seasonal adjustments to seawater changes can be made. The plant has an operating recovery rate of 60 per cent, one of the highest in the world.

In 2006, the Japanese government agreed to provide a desalination plant to the Polynesian nation of Tuvalu under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects aid scheme. The plant should help alleviate the chronic water shortage of the island of Funafuti, which has a population of around 5000 people. The plant will have a capacity of 65 m3/d.

The situation in India

In 2005, the world's first low temperature thermal desalination plant was opened in Kavaratti, one of the Indian Lakshadweep islands. It produces 100,000 litres a day of potable water. The Indian government said it expected production costs to decrease as capacity increased. There is widespread government support for desalination in India, with a pledge made two years ago to set up desalination plants with a capacity of 10 million litres a day on all islands and coastal areas. In India more than China, there is the opportunity for nuclear power plant desalination projects. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India already has a desalination plant catering to the needs of a 2000MW nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

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