Water Woe Signals $17 Billion Opportunity for India Recycler

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

SJAN media badminton tournament from Saturday

NAGPUR: The 12th edition of SJAN Media Badminton tournament will get underway at the Subhedar Hall here on Saturday. The three-day annual tourney is being sponsored by Shree Sports, Laxmi Nagar. Defending champion Ashish Jain of Lokmat has been given the top billing in the men's singles.

According to a press release issued by SJAN secretary Sandeep Dabhekar the tournament has evoked good response. Suhas Nayse of The Times of India (TOI) has been given the second seeding. Sujan Masid (Dainik Bhaskar) and Madhav Soman (TOI) are ranked third and fourth, respectively.

The matches will start at 8 am on Saturday. The tourney will be inaugurated by the president of Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) Arun Lakhani at 10.30 am. Samir Khare of Shree Sports and director of Department of Physical Education of Nagpur University Dhananjay Welukar will be the guests of honour.

The matches will be played with Yonex shuttles. Top performers will be given cash prizes and Yonex kit bags.

SEEDINGS

Men's singles: 1. Ashish Jain (Lokmat), 2. Suhas Nayse (TOI), 3. Sujan Masid (Dainik Bhaskar), 4. Madhav Soman (TOI).

Men's doubles: 1. Ashish Jain-Raviraj Ambadwar (Lokmat), 2. Sunil Warrier-Manish Sakharwade (TOI), 2. Vilas Tijare-Amit Khodke (Lokmat), 4. Subodh Ratnaparkhi-Sandeep Wardhane (TOI).

This New is Originally Posted on TIME OF INDIA

Use of sewage water by power generation companies will require Rs 32,000 crore investment: Arun Lakhani

VIL CMD Arun Lakhani

Government’s directive to use recycled sewage water by power plants will call for an investment of up to Rs 32,000 crore to meet the requirement of 80 GW capacities of state and central utilities.

“The use of sewage water by central and state power generation companies will alone require an investment of up to Rs 32,000 crore depending upon the distance between sewage treatment plant and the power plant,” Vishvaraj Infrastructure Chairman and Managing Director Arun Lakhani said.
Government’s directive will not be legally binding and it depends on state regulators to implement it. But even if central and state generators with aggregate capacity of 80,000 MW follow this directive, they would be requiring supply of 8,000 million litres treated water per day.

In January this year, government unveiled a tariff policy, which provides that thermal power plants including the existing plants located within 50 km radius of sewage treatment plant of municipality/local bodies shall mandatorily use treated sewage water produced by these bodies.

Also, the associated cost on this account should be allowed as a pass through in the tariff.
Arun Lakhani said use of 8,000 million litres of treated water will result in drinking water for 16 crore people every day and help the country deal with prevailing drought-like situation in many states today.

“Our arm Vishvaraj Environment has planned to create a capacity to supply 3,000 litres of treated sewage water to power plants in the next five years, which will require an investment of about Rs 10,000 crore, ” he said.

Recently, NTPC has decided to use sewage water treated by Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) sewage treatment plant (STP) at Bhandewadi for its Mouda plant. The plant is operating two 500 MW units using Gosikhurd water.

NMC is building a 200 million litre per day (MLD) capacity STP at Bhandewadi.

“We will be supplying 150 MLD to NTPC Mouda plant while we are looking for buyers for remaining 50 MLD supplies. It is the first PPP plant in the country as all other plants are owned by local bodies or state governments,” he said.
Other industries require additional 20,000 MLD supplies, which is also a big business opportunity for this segment, he added.

This New is Originally Posted on NAGPUR TODAY