I feel sorry to try my hand at something semi technical; but as my favorite Walrus would say, the time has come to talk of many things...

Someone said that the next big war would be fought over water resources. Good water is disappearing fast, as evident by the abundance of bottled water, mostly spurious, but for which even ordinary folks are willing to shell out Rs. 16 a liter. The disputes between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were on sharing river waters, though both states have an abundant supply of sea water all along their international boundary.

The time has come to use the advanced and well established techniques of desalination to provide good water to the people, farmers and industry. And in coastal locations this should invarably be produced from sea water.

During the Gujarat quake of 2001 UAE sent many containerloads of bottled drinking water. Much of Dubai's prosperity and greening is due to their desalination industry. Having realised the merits, Dubai is now setting up a 8000 MW Jumbo Power Plant exclusively to desalinate water.

While we shud emulate UAE in the general direction of augmenting water resources, we need not go the route they have taken. Energy for desalination need not come by burning fossil fuels. Chemical Heat Pumps are relevant technology for water desalination. This technology has been developed to commercial levels at the Technical University of Graz in Austria and owes much to the brilliant contributions by Dr. Schnitzer. In this option Solar Energy can be used to heat water upto 80 C, and this hot water can be used as energy source in a chemical absorbant cycle, like one based on Lithium Bromide- Water system. India will have no difficiculty in commercialising such technology.

It may be mentioned that the Reliance Refinery and Petrochemicals in Jamnagar are based on desalinated water, though by conventional energy sources. Reliance also supplies substantial desalinated water to Jamnagar town, transforming that eternally water starved location to an oasis of plenty.

There shud be legistlation that in a reasonable period, say 7 years, coastal industry will have to generate its own sweet water by desalination, and also supply sweet water to the adjoining towns. There can be substantial tax incentives to make the investment in water desalination a viable proposition. No imposition regarding technology or source need to be made, as innovation and competition will lead to the evolution of the best and optimum technology for augmenting water resources. There can be a seperate package of incentives for use of solar energy and chemical heat pumps.

Every year the technology should then be extended 0.5 KM inwards, providing right of way for water pipeline, etc. This way in 30 years a 10 KM strip (roughly 30,000 sq. KM) shall be fed exclusively on sea water. Imagine the impact on our scarce water resources, industry being the largest consumer of good water.

The prophets of doom will innovate to find hifi objections to such a scenario. They can bring out an arguement that the changes in the salinity levels of the sea water will adversely affect marine biology and climate change. This is all humbug, if one calculates the impact by simple mathematics

A beginning on water will have a large spinoff on all aspects of industry, society and thought. Use of solar energy and CHP will develop a new industry that will have wide ramifications. And this will lead to convergence towards effective and commercilly viable technology for use of solar energy as an alternative fuel.