India’s water
crisis is set to spur the development of a market for recycling plants that
could eventually be worth at least
$17 billion, driven in part by demand from industries, according to Vishvaraj
Infrastructure Ltd.
The
nation’s largest cities produce 38 billion liters of waste water daily, all of
which will have to be recycled eventually, Chairman Arun Lakhani
said. While that requires major investment in treatment facilities, the
government will need to provide sufficiently attractive waste water contracts
to realize the full potential of the market, he said.
“Treated
sewage can become the most secure source of water for industry in
future,” Nagpur, Maharashtra-based Lakhani said in a May 13 interview.
“Thermal power plants use a lot of water and they’re the ideal candidates for
this.”
One
of the country’s worst
droughts in decades is
set to ease from June if predictions of good monsoon rains prove accurate. Even
so, the parched conditions underscore the longer-term challenge from depleting
groundwater as well as surface-water disruption. Shortages threaten to increase
flash-points between industry, agriculture and the 1.3 billion people in India
needing drinking water.
Coal Plants
More
than 40 percent of about 186 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity in India could
switch to using recycled waste water in the next five years because of federal
government rules, Lakhani said. Treatment projects worth at least $8 billion
could arise during this time, he said.
Money
is the major obstacle to expanding municipal recycling. Metering is patchy in
India, and officials are under pressure to keep tariffs affordable as most people
live on less than $3.10 per day. Annual sales of treated water are only about
$1.6 billion currently in Asia’s No. 3 economy, consultancy TechSci Research
Pvt. estimates.
Four charts illustrate the water sector
opportunity in India:
India’s
annual freshwater withdrawal exceeds that of even China, the world’s
most-populous country:
When per capita
availability drops below 1,700 cubic meters annually, the situation is
described as water stressed. By 2050, India won’t be far from the 1,000 cubic
meter mark below which water scarcity begins:
Two straight poor monsoon
seasons in 2014 and 2015 left India this year with one of its worst
droughts since independence. A heatwave exacerbated the problem:
Both Veolia Environnement
SA and Suez Environnement Co., two top European water companies, said last year
that they are looking to expand in India. Chennai-based VA Tech Wabag Ltd.,
which builds treatment plants, has climbed 130 percent in the past five years.
Vishvaraj said it’s talking with overseas companies about jointly pursuing the
water opportunity in India:
This New is Originally Posted on bloomberg
