Water - Essential But Finite

Mumbai 4th March 2010: Mumbai, the mega metropolis and India's business capital, is faced with an unprecedented water crisis. There is tremendous pressure on water resources due to rapid increase in demand, increased development, expanding population, and increasing pollution. Against a demand of 4250 MLD Mumbai gets 3470 MLD, with a demand supply gap of 780 MLD. Further, it is reported that 20% water is lost due to theft and leakages. By 2025 Mumbai's population will be 26.4 million and water demand an alarming 5400 MLD. Finding new sources, augmenting the supply side and controlling the demand side equation of water supply will continue to pose major challenges.

Ion Exchange (India) Ltd., headquartered in Mumbai, pioneered water treatment in India and is today regarded as Asia's largest environment solutions provider, with a strong global presence. It is among just few companies worldwide with the entire range of technologies, processes, products and services, enabling integrated solutions for every sector – industrial, institutional, commercial, infrastructure, municipal, homes and communities, urban and rural.

Solutions to Augment & Conserve Water

Mumbai and Navi Mumbai depend on the monsoons which are becoming increasingly erratic, resulting in depleting lake water supplies. Sewage recycle and seawater desalination are sustainable, drought-proof, environmentally sound alternative sources of water supply. Rainwater harvesting is will also increase seepage and storage to augment supplies from groundwater (wells) and supplement municipal water supplies.

Sewage water recycle: Sullage, sewage and industrial effluent can become sources of water, with technologies available to enable recycle and recovery of as much as 99% water - moving to zero discharge. Of the 2770 MLD distributed, 80% gets converted into sewage and the city has a mere 15% sewage treatment capacity with only 60% sewerage coverage. Ultra filtration is being successfully used worldwide to obtain high quality water in one step, even from sewage. Ion Exchange has successfully installed a large number of plants using this advanced technology. The key benefit of sewage recycle is that fresh water is conserved in large volumes, while also reducing the load on the sewage network. This recycled water can be used for toilet flushing, gardening & landscaping, vehicle washing, process water (cooling tower) and a host of such applications.

A Case Study to illustrate the cost efficacy of a sewage recycle facility in a typical Mumbai high rise society: Let us take a housing complex with about 480 flats with water requirement for secondary purposes -150 m3/day. The average cost of a water tanker is Rs. 7500/day, which would mean an annual bill of Rs. 27 lacs. If a sewage treatment plant, at the cost of Rs. 40 lacs were to be installed, incurring an annual operating cost of Rs. 6 lacs the savings would be Rs 21 lacs per annum (Rs. 27 L – 6 L). This would mean that the capital expenditure of Rs. 40 lacs to put up the plant can be recovered in less then 2 years apart from reducing dependence on unreliable and expensive tanker water supplies.

Some key Sewage Treatment plants implemented by Ion Exchange: ANSAL - Gurgaon, 240 Transit Camp - Guwahati, Millanz Mall - Meerut, IIT – Kanpur, Ginger Hotel - Pune & Bhubaneshwar, MES Colony – Nagpur, Rawalkot Hotel - Jaisalmer, Welcome Hotel - New Delhi, Taj Ummed - Ahmedabad.

Sea Water Desalination: Being a coastal city with access to a large coastline makes Mumbai an ideal location to capitalise on sea water desalination as an alternate source of water. DESALINATION, a process that removes dissolved minerals from sea water or brackish water, is a proven technology used extensively abroad and also increasingly in India.

The advantages of Desalination Process based on Reverse Osmosis Technology are lower capital cost, low chemical consumption, lower energy cost, smaller footprint with modular construction to facilitate future expansion at minimal additional cost. It is ideal for cities which require decentralized water treatment facilities. The total cost per cu.m. of desalinated water is around Rs.50/m3, including capital investment, operating cost and consumables.

Some key sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination projects implemented by Ion Exchange: Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. was the first to set up a large SWRO plant in India, of 4.3 MLD (million liters per day) and today has the largest installed capacity in India. This includes the largest industrial SWRO plant of 26.4 MLD commissioned recently for Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Tamil Nadu. The company is also executing the first large SWRO plant of 19.8 MLD in the power sector in India for the NTPC-TNEB joint venture at Vallur, Tamil Nadu. Other SWRO projects to its credit are the 7 MLD plant for Mundra Thermal Power Project of Adani Power, 6 MLD plant for Gujarat Anjan Cement in Kutch, 6 MLD plant for Indian Rayon & Industries at Veraval, 3.6 MLD plant for Maducon Power at Simhapuri, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, 3.5 MLD plant for Gujarat Heavy Chemicals at Veraval, and 1.3 MLD plant for Chemplast Sanmar at Karaikal, Pondicherry.

Source : Equity Bulls

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