Energy security is linked to water security: Scientific Advisor

Mumbai, Feb 7 (UNI) Principal scientific advisor to the Government of India, Dr R Chidambaram today said energy security is closely linked to water security, as the latter cannot be guaranteed without careful attention to related energy issues.

Addressing members of the Indian&International Scientific community, after inaugurating a three-day symposium on 'Desalination and Water Re-use' at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre here, he said energy security and water security are critical issues in India's development with the changing geo-political situations around the world.

Mr Chidambaram said countries like France and Japan, which depend on imported fossil fuel resources, are heavily dependent on Nuclear power for fear of fossil fuel supply cuts during war.

In this regard, countries sought energy security because the nuclear fuel for several years can be stored in the reactors backyards, he added.

He pointed out that annual supplies of rainwater and water from melting of snow in the mountains are not going to increase. On the other hand, the population and the food demand are growing and industries are expanding. Hence, ensuring sustainable water security for the future is a big challenege.

On the occasion, Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), said that water related concerns have turned into technical and social problems as a result of greater developments.

He said development, change in life style and urbanization has aggravated the current use and concern of water in a large scale. In this regard, the poor people of the villages are far better in comparison to the urban population that wastes the maximum qantitiy of water.

Asking the scientific community to continue their research for new technologies, he said that real benefits of technology can be realised only by developing more society friendly models that is again a big challenge.

Kakodkar emphasised that water scarcity problem is due to lack of implementation of laws. Whereas technology to solve water concerns are available with BARC. However, re-use of water is another aspect to solve the problem, he maintianed.

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