For a country perennially short of water, desalination plants may offer a tempting solution on how to get out of the severe crunch we presently find ourselves in. Desalination as a process seems to work best in coastal cities and towns not only for resolving drinking water requirements but also for handling the water intake of thermal power plants. However, expecting desalination plants to deliver for the agriculture sector would be plain dumb. And if we look at the 130-odd countries that currently operate desalination plants none of them have ever thought of using the same for agricultural needs which is just as well.
While we go full steam ahead with desalination plants in Karachi and Gwadar, we must not forget that such plants can neither be environmentally friendly nor cheap to run. There is a constant risk of wastewater discharges that threaten to affect coastal water quality. The effluent thus drained by desalination plants produces a multi-component waste which is equally hazardous to sediment as well as marine organisms. In the long term we must ask ourselves whether the advantage of producing 5, 10 or 50 million gallons of water per day can outweigh the potential environmental damage to our coastal interests.
For Gwadar, the high cost of building and running desalination plants may not be much of a worry considering that the governments of the UAE and Switzerland will be funding the project. For Karachi, however, the burden may have to be carried mainly by the private sector in conjunction with the federal government.
A report prepared by the Planning Commission recognised that both Karachi and Gwadar need innovative financing models for the financial sustainability of a seawater treatment system. It also sees the need for harnessing a solar desalination system for Keti Bandar, Thatta and Badin in Sindh and Ormara, Pasni and Jivani in Balochistan. However, we must keep environmental concerns in mind at all times.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2018.
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