The word water, synonymous with life, is one of nature's most important gifts to mankind. However, this elixir of life is in great danger now and is in a dire need to be conserved and preserved carefully.
A recent water scarcity reports of the World Economic Forum (WEF) titled “The Bubble is Close to Bursting: A Forecast of the Main Economic and Geopolitical Water Issues Likely to Arise in the World during the Next Two Decades,” and “Water Security: The Water-Food-Energy-Climate Nexus” state that the demand for water is expected to increase continuously. It is estimated that there will be a 40 per cent global deficit between the projected demand and available supply by 2030.
Today, India faces acute water shortage. While its water resources are depleting fast, the demand for water from various sectors of the economy are rapidly rising.
According to the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) statistics, India has over 1.2 billion population with an average daily fresh water consumption of 3-4 litres (about 400 million litres everyday), and an additional “uncountable” amount of water is used for myriad domestic and industrial purposes.
In recent years, the industrial and domestic sectors have realised this disparity in the supply and demand. Says, S Siddiqui, industry analyst, “Water is an indispensable for all socio-economic development and for maintaining hale and hearty ecosystems. As population increases and development calls for increased allocations of groundwater and surface water for the domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors, the pressure on water resources intensifies, leading to tensions, conflicts among users, and excessive pressure on the environment. The increasing stress on freshwater resources brought about by ever rising demand and profligate use, as well as by growing pollution worldwide, is of grave concern.”
The worsening water availability scene
Currently, India accounts for 2.45 per cent of land area and four per cent of water resources of the world but represents 16 per cent of the world population. With the present population growth-rate (1.9 per cent per year), the population is expected to cross the 1.5 billion mark by 2050.
Further, the Planning Commission of India has estimated the water demand increase from 710 BCM (Billion Cubic Meters) in 2010 to almost 1180 BCM in 2050 with domestic and industrial water consumption expected to increase almost 2.5 times.
Like many other developed & developing countries, in India too water security is one of the most critical challenges being faced today. Drinking water problems in the country are quite different from those in developed countries. Here, the main concern is with disinfecting the potable water at the point of use.
On other hand, the rising number of drinking water contaminations, pollution and water-based illness like typhoid, diarrhoea & leptopyrisis cases has routed urban, tier I & II people to espouse bottled water or install water purification tablets.
Water treatment business in India
Water and wastewater treatment describes those processes used to make water more acceptable for a desired end-use. These can include use as drinking water, industrial processes, medical and many other uses. Traditionally in India, the point of use market has been dominated by ultraviolet purifiers and filters for water decontamination.
The goal of all water treatment process is to get rid of existing contaminants in the water, or lessen the concentration of such contaminants so the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. One such use is returning water that has been used back into the natural environment without adverse ecological impact.
In a fresh research study titled “Status of Water Treatment Plants in India,” the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the Ministry of Environment and Forests noted that the raw water quality available in India varies significantly, resulting in modifications to the conventional water treatment scheme consisting of aeration, chemical coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. The backwash water and sludge generation from water treatment plants are of environment concern in terms of disposal. Therefore, optimisation of chemical dosing and filter runs carries importance to reduce the rejects from the water treatment plants.
Under this study, the CPCB also studied water treatment plants operational status for prevailing raw water quality, water treatment technologies, operational practices, chemical consumption and rejects management across the country.
“Our variation in water quality has led to boom in water treatment equipment business, in particular at sensitive sectors like pharmaceuticals & food as it requires range of state-of-the-art technologies for their final produce,” S Khan, former officer at quality assurance in Food Corporation of India (FCI) said in a telecon.
Says Azim Shaikh, manager of Berrys packaged drinking water at Thane district, “The Indian water industry is booming and undergoing radical changes continually. Being a niche market, the number of organisations involved in this industry is on the rise, leading to increased options of products and services. There is drastic increase for water treatment & wastewater treatment equipment & machineries from pharmaceuticals and f&b industry.”
“The water treatment practices involved solids separation from water by using physical processes such as settling and filtration, and chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation. Biological processes are also employed in the treatment of wastewater and these processes may include, for example, aerated lagoons, activated sludge or slow sand filters,” he added.
For drinking quality requirements, the water treatment processors throughout the world obey World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. In addition to the WHO guidelines, each country or territory or water supply body can have their own guidelines in order for consumers to have access to safe drinking water. In India, government bodies like Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are control water based products & their certification.
Current technologies
At present, technologies like membrane filtration through membrane bioreactors, aerobic biological treatment processes – conventional activated sludge process (ASP) system, and Desalination with UF pre-treatment are few which are widely used in sophisticated water & wastewater treatment.
Opportunities
A research paper titled “Indian Water and Wastewater Treatment Market Opportunities for US Companies” by the New York based Virtus Global Partners, Inc. in association with the India -based ICRA Management Consulting says that the Indian water and wastewater market is growing at a rate of 10-12 per cent every year. The current market size is over $4 billion.
“The Government related projects contribute over 50 per cent of revenues in this market while the private sector contributes the rest. The water and wastewater treatment market segment is highly fragmented and unorganised. Imports constitute approximately $110 million of the $690 million market for municipal and industrial water treatment equipment,” it said.
The Indian water and wastewater industry is growing at a rapid pace. The water industry has become a key sector of growth and development. India is poised to grow in the water technology segment and will soon become a force to reckon with in the global water business, with its improved infrastructure, water delivery, and inventive technology. “This growth is anticipated to remain steady but this industry suffers from a serious dearth of qualified professionals. Hence, the water and wastewater industry offers exciting career opportunities across the world,” Azim Shaikh added.
$100 bn project to interlink river networks
The Central Government is currently implementing a $100 billion project to interlink all major river networks in India. This initiative would connect water-deficient areas to water-abundant ones by interlinking 37 Indian rivers. One of the largest projects anywhere in the world, it would transfer water through 30 links across 9,600 kilometers. It would connect 32 dams and use 56 mt of cement and 2 mt of steel. It would bring with it a huge requirement for water management, transmission and distribution.
India’s water transmission and distribution networks are outdated and poorly maintained. The government has recently viewed privatisation of these networks as the only option. Water companies from all over the world have established a presence in India to pursue an estimated 70 projects worth several billion dollars in 20 Indian cities.
Further, the ministry of water resources is likely to bring out a new National Water Policy soon. In one of the press conferences recently, the minister for water resources informed that the Centre has formulated a new water policy, which would incorporate the central issue of governance, including all aspects like environment and development, the states were also free to formulate their own policies as water was a “state” subject.
As per government statistics, over 75per cent of the rural population and 85 per cent of the urban population have access to public water supplies. However, municipal agencies in many Indian towns and cities are unable to increase their water supply capacities to match population growth, especially in the urban areas. Water requirement for industrial use alone is expected to quadruple from the current 30 billion cubic meters to 120 billion cubic meters by 2025.