Andaman gets MoEF's nod for setting up desalination plant

Port Blair, Oct 15 (UNI) Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which faces acute water scarcity every summer, has finally got clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest for setting up a desalination plant.

According to official sources the plant would come up at Brookshabad village of South Andaman, situated close to Port Blair city and the sea-shore area.

The clearance has been given under the provisions of Costal Regulation Zone notification of 1991, sources in the Andaman Administration said today.

The need for setting up the plant has been felt following inadequate distribution of treated water supply to the residents of the town.

The proposed desalination plant will have a capacity of generating 14 million litres of water per day which will ultimately help reduce the demand and supply gap of treated water in the Port Blair Municipal Council.

The Andaman and Nicobar Coastal Zone Management Authority had recommended the matter of setting up this plant to the Ministry in August.

However, experts feel that setting up of desalination plant is not the right answer to water scarcity of the Islands, which receives nearly seven months of rain.

''We receive 3000 MM of rainfall annually. So the right way to deal with water crisis is largescale rainwater harvesting,'' Mr Basudev Dass, Director Samaprasad Institute of Social Science, in Andaman, told UNI