Namak ka karz: ‘Kill the fish, and you erase our future’

If you are a trueblue Mumbaikar you have spent at least one evening at Manori Beach Manori village is a pocket of Mumbai that almost seems to be locked in another time itrsquos the closest thing we have to Goa in our city Itrsquos hard to imagine this quaint village with its Portuguesestyle homes and quiet strolls by the beach is now the epicentre of a massive faceoff between the locals and the authoritiesTomorrow the fishing community is set to shut down the coastal hamlet with a bandh and protest march against the project Here salt and sea are sacrosanct for the fisherfolk who live off the catch And they fear thatrsquos exactly whatrsquos at stake with the new desalination plant proposed to come up here by 2029Ronny Kinny belongs to the East Indian community at ManoriIt is no secret that Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR is staring at an unprecedented water crisis The city is operating at a 30 per cent shortage In fact BMC is mulling on a 10 per cent water cut as soon as this week due to a combination of reasons mdash a deficient monsoon the El Nino effect shrinking water reserves in dams and receding groundwater levelsIn August news broke about the BMC approving a desalination plant at Manori that will produce 200 million litres per day MLD that may be expanded to 400 MLD later Experts say this will still only cover 10 per cent of the 30 per cent shortageWhile therersquos no doubt that the city needs to figure out a solution for the crisis with water likely to get scarcer by the year Manorirsquos fisherfolk argue that BMCrsquos solution mdash desalination mdash comes at much too great a costWork has already been started by the BMC with a barricade surrounding itThey fear that desalination will have a devastating impact on the marine ecology and their livelihood The brine or concentrated saltwater byproduct left over after fresh water is separated from seawater is so salty that it can kill marine life and even lead to a rise in sea temperaturesOne of the many fishermen who have expressed these fears is Kiran Koli from the Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samitee MMKS He alleges the authorities have not had any conversation with the local fishing community until they took out a protest march on August 21ldquoAfter that they met us but still barely gave us any answers All they kept saying is that the brine water is not toxic itrsquos just the same salt that was in the sea and we will give it back to the same sea What are they saying We have seen that any sea that has too much salt in it even if naturally occurring cannot sustain life such as the Dead Sea in West Asiardquo he saysKiran Koli Vinay K Srivastava and Nityanand JayaramanldquoSay they push out 600 MLD of brine water every day they are saying it will get diluted by rainwater and by mixing with the sea But the supply of water in the sea is not infinite even nature has a limit Fresh water is added to the sea only when there is rain and the lack of rain is what has brought us here in the first placerdquoHe adds ldquoWhile scientists can do research and testing we Kolis know when even the slightest change affects fish breeding and larvae survival This comes from thousands of years of coexisting with this ecosystem We are worried that the plant will make the seawater too salty to sustain any life And when the fish die so does our livelihoodrdquoLike the Koli community the East Indians too are among the original residents of Mumbai They too have raised concerns over the plant Ronny Kinny who lived alongside the Kolis all his life says ldquoWe told them to stop the work but now they have put a barricade around the plant site We have already lost ground to itrdquoThe Vizag desalination plant that will produce 100 MLD PICXInfragatiKinny adds that there was no consultation with the locals ldquoThey showed us a presentation in March and we had told them a resounding lsquoNorsquo but it didnrsquot matter They have still not told us where they will dump the brine either So we have no idea which area is going to be hitrdquoFor now work has begun at the site barricades have been put up and walls have been constructed Come Monday a showdown is anticipated at the Collectorrsquos office when the fisherfolk march thereBut what does science have to say about the issue Vinay K Srivastava a life member of the Indian Desalination Association InDA and retired scientific officer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre believes that the science behind the plant is solid ldquoCurrently we have a population of two crore people and on average the requirement of water per person is 250 litres per day So right now we have a deficit of 30 per cent Desalination will address 10 per cent that of that shortfallrdquo he saysWhat a day in Manori looks likeSrivastava who is among the experts consulted on the plant stresses that brine that will go back to the sea is but a drop in the ocean as compared to how much water is there in the sea ldquoThe brine water will get diluted within a few metres inside the sea Of course it the brine will be discharged much farther away from the source It will also be ensured that the release is against the current so that diffusion of the water happens steadilyrdquo he addsSrivastava has also explained that all parameters are usually taken into consideration with regards to aquatic life ldquoAquatic life near and around the plant is a top priorityrdquo he says but adds that fish can adapt to new conditions ldquoA pumprsquos vibration at the plant might disturb fish but as we have seen at jetties across many cities the fish get used to the noise and come backrdquo he says adding ldquoMore importantly there is no chemical or thermal damage from desalination there is only the mechanical sound which they will get used tordquoWhen we point out concerns that the plantrsquos intake suction might pull in fish along with seawater Srivastava clarifies ldquoThe suction will be housed in an underwater tunnel so no coastal area will be disturbed There will be a rotating screen that removes all fish so they are not suctioned The suction filters are also very fine almost like a tea strainer Even jellyfish will not enter There is also no chlorination at this stagerdquoldquoThis project will ensure water security without disturbing ecology or any communityrdquo he says ldquoAt the same I think while the plant comes the authorities must make sure that the community has some form of enrichment via a schoolrdquo he adds Deputy civic commissioner Abhijit Bangar too reiterated this in a press conference on FridayNityanand Jayaraman is an engineerturnedjournalist and environmental justice advocate with the Chennai Solidarity Group Vettiver Collective He critiques EIAs reviews them and explain its contents to affected villagers including one of the first such facilities at Minjur Tamil NaduThe reverse osmosis is the technique being used at Manori GraphicistockTo our great surprise the Manori folks had already reached out to him to ask to assess the potential damage in their backyard as well ldquoOne needs to first understand what a desalination plant is and also what a toxic substance isrdquo he tells us on a call from the US where he is currently ldquoEven in the human body we know that too much salt can lead to one dying of hypertension So saying salt cannot be a nontoxic substance is not correctrdquoldquoThe technology being used is seawater reverse osmosis desalination In the case of Manori there is a plant proposed on a 20acre piece of land on the coast This is the landing point for two of the most important infrastructures One is a seawater intake pipeline and the other is a seawater effluent outfallrdquo he saysAlthough banned in recent years Manorirsquos beach bullock cart races were a huge crowd puller FILE PICHe then goes on to explain the sheer volume of water that will be sucked from the sea every day Each litre of fresh water processed requires ldquoroughly 2 to 225 times more seawaterrdquo ldquoSo if I have a 400 million litre plant I will probably suck in about one billion litres of seawater every day After processing there will be 500 million litres of effluent mdash which will have twice the amount of salt What that effluent does because it is heavier than regular seawater is to descend and form a blanket on the seabedrdquo he addsAnd the seafloor is where life begins he asserts ldquoThere are organisms that live on and under the seafloor buried in the sediment are infauna and on the sediment are called the epifauna These are the building blocks for life in the sea It is this baseline that the blanket of heavy salt water will choke the life out ofrdquo he saysNityanand says what worries him is that the EIArsquos baseline data is woefully inadequate The data presented is not sufficient to understand impacts ldquoThe principle they authorities are working on is that dilution is a solution to pollution that does not really make sense Baseline refers to a snapshot of the conditions as of today What is the baseline before I start doing the projectFirst of all I have to assess what the normal is For a dynamic and always changing marine environment like this the normal keeps changing The sea is different in different seasons It changes with the tide Ocean currents can change in direction or speed all of which have implications on how the effluents will behave once discharged For this state of the art science says at least two hears of data collection prior to start of construction is requiredrdquoThe EIA he alleges does none of that ldquoSo the idea behind good diffusion is to try and minimise the area of influence For which we need to have multiple data sources across multiple seasons In their EIA they have two months of data taken from three points The BMCrsquos EIA records only 16 fish species in Manorirsquos water But studies by RWK Ramteke 2024 and RN Wanjari 2020 that are based on 12 monthly samples in 20192020 report 127 species in Mumbairsquos coastal waters including 88 fish 12 prawns and 5 crab speciesrdquo says NityanandThese species he says are not included in the EIA ldquoBasically if it a species doesnrsquot exist on paper then when it dies nothing dies on paper eitherrdquo he adds ldquoI vehemently oppose this plant being built at Manorirdquo he concludeslsquoThis is a lazy solutionrsquoJanakarajan a researcher and professor talks about how desalination has affected Chennai and offers alternative answers to the water crisisProfessor Janakarajan a wellestablished researcher on water ecology and the environment and a former professor at Madras Institute of Development Studies says that desalination plants are unwarranted for cities such as Chennai where the average annual rainfall is around 1200 mm Furthermore he highlights that dumping brine within 1 km radius of the shore can damage the coastal ecosystem ldquoAre they dumping the brine beyond 3 km distance from the shorerdquo he asksHe explains ldquoIf the plantrsquos reject water is dumped into the sea it will affect the searsquos TDS level tremendously which is going to affect the coastal life systemrdquo Pointing to West Asia where desalination supplies much of the freshwater requirements Janakarajan says ldquoThe sea around them is more or less dead You donrsquot find fish there mdash in fact they import most of their fishrdquoJanakarajanMumbai is far from the first city to reach for this solution Chennai Vishakapatnam and several industrial towns in Gujarat all have desalination plants One of the countryrsquos earlier desalination plants was set up at Minjur near Chennai The impact desalination has had on Chennairsquos fishing communities says Janakarajan is already visible ldquoThose who used to fish with small boats along the coast have disappeared Their livelihood is completely goesrdquoFor Janakarajan desalination should be a last resort not the first solution to water scarcity ldquoThat is why I call the desalination plant a lazy solutionrdquo With Chennai receiving more than 1200 mm of rainfall annually he questions why rainwater harvesting is not being prioritised ldquoThat much rainfall is a huge buffer And why is it that you are not in a position to tap itrdquoHe also urges authorities to explore ways to conserve floodwater pointing to Japan where tunnels beneath highways help capture heavy rainfall ldquoWhen you can develop a technology to convert seawater into freshwater donrsquot you have any technology to tap the rainwater whenever there is a heavy downpourrdquoWhat is a desalination PlantA desalination plant is a facility that removes salt and impurities from seawater or brackish water to produce fresh clean and safe water for human industrial or agricultural useRs 9591 crCost of the Manori desalination plantWhere is the MorchaA GoraiManori Bandh has been called for October 19 Fisherfolk have said they will not be opening Manori to tourists and will shut down the beach completely The protestors will march to the Collectorrsquos Office in Kala Nagar BandralsquoWe turn air into waterrsquoRamkrishna Mukkavilli founder of Maithri Aquatech talks about technology that uses water vapour in the air to generate potable waterWhat if the air around us could help solve our water crisis Ramkrishna Mukkavilli founder and managing director of Hyderabadbased Maithri Aquatech believes atmospheric water generation AWG could be an answer The technology extracts moisture from the air and converts it into potable waterDH Subramaniam has installed an AWG machine that produces 60 litres of drinking water a day in his officeldquoThere are 13 billion cubic metres of water in the atmosphererdquo he says adding that this reservoir is replenished 41 times a year The technology can be scaled to suit different needs from a single machine producing 20 to 5000 litres a day ldquoIf you put 200 machines together you can produce one million litres a dayrdquo he says estimating that such a plant would cost around Rs 150 croreDH SubramaniamUnlike desalination which concentrates production in large plants and relies on extensive distribution networks Mukkavilli argues that decentralised water generation could reduce distribution costs and make supply less vulnerable to attacks on central infrastructure ldquoWhen you have a centralised system you are vulnerable If somebody attacks that one plant the whole system goes downrdquo he says ldquoWhy canrsquot you have a decentralised systemrdquoRamkrishna MukkavilliHe believes a new scheme could be modeled on the Centrersquos PMSurya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana which supports households in installing rooftop solar panels and apply a similar model to water generation ldquoIf every house can have solar panels on the rooftop why canrsquot you have a water generatorrdquo he asks ldquoYou can generate water where it is required instead of spending so much on distributionrdquoFor Seawoods resident and social worker DH Subramaniam the technology is already part of everyday life He has had a machine installed at his office since 2019 producing 60 litres of drinking water a day ldquoI was happy to introduce the product locally in 2019 when it was at a very nascent stagerdquo he sharesHis interest in finding alternatives to conventional water sources is rooted in his childhood ldquoI faced water scarcity when I was a child That is why I am passionate about finding solutions to the water crisisrdquo he saysNothing toxic says BMCSunday midday poses a few questions to the BMC administration about the projectWill the brine effluent from the plant kill the fish and decrease fishermenrsquos catchldquoBrine is simply natural seawater concentrated to 15ndash18x salinity No toxic chemicals or heavy metals are added What matters is not how salty the water is but how quickly it diffuses in a localised area once it reenters into the sea After quick dispersal it will have similar characteristics of the ambient sea waterThe concerns of the fishing community regarding the impact of brine discharge on fish population and marine life have been carefully considered from the planning stage itself As part of this process a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment EIA was carried out by a reputed marine environment agency covering marine ecology biodiversity seawater quality seabed conditions oceanographic studies and dispersion modellingrdquoDoes Mumbai need a desalination plant Canrsquot water can be harvested otherwiseldquoThe BMC draws about 4100 MLD against a requirement of 4665 MLD a gap of more than 550 MLD per day The expert committee report accepted by the state legislature in 2018 pegs the cityrsquos water demand at 5320 MLD by 2031 and around 6424 MLD by 2041 fuelled by increase in population rapid redevelopment slum rehabilitation schemes The need for desalination is not because Mumbai is close to the sea or has a humid climateThe real challenge is ensuring a reliable supply of freshwater for a city with a population exceeding 1415 million and a continuously growing water demand Rainwater harvesting leak reduction and wastewater recycling are ongoing and important components of Mumbairsquos water management strategy and will continue to be promoted However these measures alone cannot meet the cityrsquos longterm water requirements Mumbai remains heavily dependent on monsoonfed reservoirs such as Vaitarna and Bhatsa In years of deficient rainfall or uneven monsoon distribution reservoir levels can be severely affected creating stress on the cityrsquos already stretched water supplyrdquoWill the project cause a rise in temperatureldquoNo the Manori desalination project is not expected to cause any significant increase in sea temperature or ambient temperature The project uses Reverse Osmosis RO technology which is fundamentally different from thermal desalination processes In RO technology seawater is passed through specialised membranes under pressure to separate fresh water from saltsThe process does not involve boiling heating or thermal treatment of seawater and therefore does not generate hot water discharges This fear essentially stems from confusing two very different technologies mdash the oldschool Thermal Desalination and the newer technology of Sea Water Reverse Osmosis SWRO Membrane A technical review of SWRO discharges notes that the localised effect near discharge is usually less than 1degC of ambient seawater and that historically the temperature variations below 2degC have not been considered to have an environmental impact And further in our case even the slight difference disappears as the brine is diluted at the diffuser Upon completion Manori would be Indiarsquos first desalination plant powered entirely by renewable energyrdquo