To outsiders, it may come as a surprise that Kerala, a land of 44
rivers, is turning to desalination plants to ward off thirst. The
government has identified 19 sites in five coastal districts – all of
them badly hit in terms of drinking water availability – for setting up
desalination facilities to address the problem.

The project will
be implemented by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), KWA chairman V J
Kurian said. The proposed plants will employ reverse osmosis for
purifying saline water.

Six of the locations are in
Thiruvananthapuram – Vettucaud, Veli, Pozhiyoor, Poovar, Muthalapozhi
Harbour, Anchuthengu and Puthiyathura. Kollam will get four; at
Sakthikulangara, Thangassery, Thevally and Mangad while Alappuzha stands
to get two – at Kainakari and Nedumudi in the Kuttanad belt.  In
Thrissur district, Poyya has been selected for the purpose, while five
locations have been identified in Kasargode district – Thalangara,
Bangode anganwadi, Nellikkunnu beach (north) and Nellikkunnu beach
(south) and the anganwadi at Moideen Palli Pallam Road. The capacity of
the proposed desalination plants range from 2000 litres per hour (lph)
to 10,000 lph.

The bigger desalination plants are intended for the two sites in Kuttanad, which face an acute shortage of drinking water.

‘’We
selected places that face severe water scarcity and where the KWA also
face difficulty in supplying water. Since Kerala has a coastline of 590
kilometres, we also wanted an even distribution of the plants,’’ KWA
managing director Ashok Kumar Singh said.

‘’The choice of water that will be treated has been left open and depending on the location,’’ he said.